


Christmas Comes Early

by SushiOwl



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Accidental Pregnancy, Alpha!Barry, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Anal Sex, Double Penetration in Two Holes, Knotting, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mick has both genitals, Omega!Mick, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Threesome - M/M/M, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, beta!leonard, mpreg in future chapters, only mildly canon compliant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:28:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21783724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SushiOwl/pseuds/SushiOwl
Summary: If Barry had to explain it, he'd blame it on the hormones. But, honestly, it wasn't easy to justify how he ended up spending a heat week with Mick Rory and Leonard Snart even to himself. But it worked out in the end.Right?
Relationships: Barry Allen/Leonard Snart, Barry Allen/Mick Rory, Barry Allen/Mick Rory/Leonard Snart, Mick Rory/Leonard Snart
Comments: 46
Kudos: 195





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Daughter_of_Scotland](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daughter_of_Scotland/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this entire first chapter in one sitting. >.> That's how long it's been bouncing around in my head. Shame? Don't know her.
> 
> I also didn't edit this, just kind of vomited it out.
> 
> This story is a Christmas present to Daughter_of_Scotland, my long time tumblr buddy. It's also a Christmas punishment, because god knows how long it'll take me to finish!

It was a slow day for Team Flash, which only meant someone wasn't in life-threatening peril and what they had to deal with was run of the mill, non-meta emergencies. It was for these kinds of days that Barry was thankful for. And, this close to Christmas, he was thankful for a lot. His friends were all alive. He hadn't broken the timeline lately. No big bads had shown up in a couple months. Maybe he would actually be able to enjoy Grandma Esther's eggnog this year, even if it didn't get him wasted like it did to his friends and family.

He may have been window shopping the entirety of the mall district when Cisco came over his comms, resignation in his voice, "Robbery in progress at the pop up jewelry boutique on Main and 5th. Witness reports say two men, one with a gun firing ice and the other with a flamethrower."

Barry let out a sigh as he ran halfway up a building, turned about and zipped in that direction. He was in the store in a fraction of a second. Snart was standing on top of a table, dramatic as always, and Rory was shoveling things into a bag, his heat gun hanging off his hip.

Barry was about to remark that, really, they could have taken the holidays off, but the sudden smell of cinnamon flooded his nose and caused him to sneeze instead.

"Flash!" Snart said, amusement coloring his voice. "So nice to see you. Isn't it a little too _cold_ to be wearing skin-tight leather?"

"Excuse you!" Cisco spat in his ear. "Barry, tell him that suit is made of reinforced, heat resistant tripolymer--"

"I'm warm enough, Snart," Barry said instead, rubbing his nose. He ignored Cisco's noise of annoyance in his ear. "You're the one who will be requesting extra blankets in Iron Heights."

"I think I'll stick with my Egyptian cotton sheets and goose-down blanket, thank you very--"

Barry almost missed the fire, too busy coming up with comebacks to what Snart was saying. He gasped and dodged to the side, whipping his head over to Rory, who was pointing his heat gun at him. He was shaking, a tremor so fine coursing through his arms and causing the gun to wobble. A bead of sweat slipped down the side of Rory's face, over his clenched jaw and down his neck into the collar of his coat. Barry watched it, transfixed as the smell of cinnamon swirled in his head.

"Mick!" Leonard hissed. "What're you doing?"

"Need to leave, boss," Rory answered shortly, before firing the gun again.

Barry dodged the beam of fire and had the gun out of Rory's hand and Rory on the floor, his arm wrenched behind him and his knee on his back, before anyone could blink. Normally, this is where he would have been in a good place to try to talk Snart into giving up peacefully, because as much as Snart played the cold ex-murderer, anyone could see that he had two people he cared about; his sister and Rory. 

But, even as he got what he was going to say lined up, his nose was filled with cinnamon again. Warmth filled his head and his blood, and he realized all too belatedly what he was experiencing.

"Get off him, Flash," Snart warned, accompanied by the warning whirr of his gun.

Barry glanced up at him, deduced that he wasn't going to fire when he might his Rory, and looked around instead. Somewhere in this store was an omega, and Barry could feel himself reacting to them. He needed to leave, obviously, because this was an embarrassing and vulnerable time for the omega, and the stress of the robbery was obviously making it worse.

He reached down, still looking around at the frightened bystanders, and grabbed Rory by the collar, ready to haul him like a wild dog out of the store. The gasp Rory let out was soft, and Barry's eyes snapped to him. Rory was peering up at him, pupils wide and shivering, as sweat beaded on his forehead.

Oh.

_Oh._

Barry looked from Rory to Snart, who was giving them a look of confusion, which was an emotion he was obviously uncomfortable with by the journey his face was taking. Carefully, he looped his arm under Rory's wide chest and zipped off, grabbing the heat gun and Snart in the process, to take them a few blocks away to an empty rooftop. He set them down, and stepped away, their weapons in his hands.

"What the fuck, Barry?" Snart snapped, ripping off his goggles.

Barry looked at him, then at Rory, and back. "Wait here. I'll be back in a minute." With that, he was off, taking the cold and heat guns with him to STAR Labs and scaring his friends. "Uh," he said, dumping the weapons on a table that wasn't covered in gadgets. "Going off comms for a minute," he said, pulling it out of his ear and setting it down too. Before Cisco, Caitlin or Harry could ask, he was out of the building and back at the rooftop.

Rory had collapsed against the half wall that bordered the roof, taking gulps of the chilled air. He had undone the top half of his turnouts, exposing his thick neck and sweat-soaked tank top to the world. Snart was standing over him, having taken off one of his gloves and lain it on Rory's forehead.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Snart asked, his voice soft and low. It was weird hearing his tone like that, almost affectionate.

"Didn't know until we were already at the store," Rory explained, his tone thick like molasses with need. "Thought I could tough it out, 'cause I didn't want to ruin your plan."

"Idiot," Snart said, gentle.

"Yeah. Seems so." Rory flicked his eyes over to where Barry was. "You just gonna stand there and watch, Red? Didn't take you for a perve."

Barry shook his head. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"What about all the talk of Iron Heights and their thin ass blankets?" Snart deadpanned, mouth settling in a harsh line.

"That's not a safe place for an omega in heat," Barry said, well aware of the failings of understaffed and underfunded prisons.

"No, it's not," Rory agreed, his eyes sliding away.

Barry decided it was best not to think about it, and an even better idea not to ask. He hadn't even known Rory was an omega. The guy had always struck him as an alpha, what with the rage issues, the size of him, and how he was always the muscle. That, and Snart had seemed like the type of beta to enjoy bossing alphas around. That showed him for stereotyping, he guessed.

"We're fine," Snart spat, pulling off his other glove and laying his hand on Rory's flushed cheek. "You can just run along and--"

"We've got a place," Rory interrupted, reaching up to circle his hand around Snart's wrist. "By the docks. Used to be a boat rental place."

"Mick!" Snart snapped, curling his fingers under Rory's chin and tipping his head up. "What're you doing?"

"It's the closet place," Rory said right back, brows coming down. "You planning on carrying me yourself, boss?"

Snart didn't seem to have an answer to that.

"That doesn't sound very secure," Barry said.

"None of our safe houses are secure," Snart told him in the blandest voice possible. "Comes with the lifestyle."

Rolling his lips between his teeth, Barry's rational mind had a battle with his instincts. On one hand, Snart and Rory were adults. They had dealt with this before, and they knew what they needed to do to survive it. On the other hand, his alpha monkey brain told him that there was no way he was letting a vulnerable omega, no matter how capable he was, spend his heat in a cold, unsafe, run down shack.

"I think I have a better idea," he told them.

"Such as?" Snart asked, suspicion dripping from his tone as he curled his hand under Rory's jaw.

Barry tried not to bristle. He was being helpful, dammit. "Uh." He dropped his eyes to Rory, who was gazing at him curiously. "How--how long does your heat last?"

Rory's eyebrow leapt up his forehead.

* * *

"Hello," Barry greeted the kind-looking omega receptionist as he approached the check-in desk. "Do you have any heat rooms available for the next four days?"

The receptionist looked from him to where Rory was leaning on Snart behind him and then back, his mild expression never changing. That somehow made Barry feel both less awkward and more like a total pervert. "We do have heat rooms available, yes. There is a flat price for a week's stay. You and the rest of your triad are welcome to check out early, of course, but there is no reimbursement for early check out."

Warmth flooded Barry's face. Oh god, this guy thought they were a triad? Did they look like a nuclear family? "Uh, oh, okay, we'll take one heat room, please," he managed as he dug his wallet out of his pants and offered the omega his card.

When he'd gone back to STAR Labs to return the suit, get his clothes and borrow Caitlin's car, he'd promised to provide answers later. He'd chosen a heat stay hotel because it wouldn't show up on his bank account, a paltry comfort because he knew that Cisco could find out no matter what. But really, this was the best idea. A regular hotel was about as safe and discreet as one of Snart and Rory's safe houses, and he certainly couldn't take them home! At least at a heat stay hotel, the cost of room service was included, so he didn't have to worry about Snart leaving to knock over a Big Belly Burger.

The room was... Well, it was a hotel room, and it looked like one. It had a large bed up against a wall with two night stands on either side, a dresser with a TV sitting on top, a closet, a kitchenette and a bathroom. Once inside, Rory sighed out that he really wanted a shower, so Snart helped him into the bathroom. That left Barry standing around with nothing to do. He checked in one of the nightstands and wished he didn't, because it was filled with lube and condoms. Useful, sure, but a slap in the face reality check about what Snart and Rory were going to be doing here.

After a minute, Snart opened the door to the bathroom, the sound of running water following him until he shut it again. He dropped his eyes to the contents of the nightstand then lifted a brow.

Barry slid the drawer shut, the scraping squeak of the woof punctuating his shame. "Uh, so--"

"Before you go," Snart said, glancing back at the bathroom a second. "I need something else from you."

"Is it illegal?" Barry had to ask.

That made Snart grin. "Not in this country."

He didn't know what to make of that, so he just tipped his chin up. "What is it?"

"We need some of our clothes and... personal items from one of our safe houses. Can you take me?" 

Barry thought about saying no, just because this was Snart, and he didn't trust him as far as he could throw him. But this wasn't about Snart. It was about Rory and his needs. "Okay," he said, stepping over to Snart. "Where?"

* * *

This safe house was in an abandoned processing building for disused electronics. They had set up a room in the main office, complete with a mattress on the floor, half a living room, a hot plate and a table with three chairs making up the kitchen and dining area, and some plastic drawers next to a hang bar for clothes. Honestly, it was pretty quaint and not all the evil lair that one would think someone with the alias Captain Cold would have.

"This is nice," Barry said, looking around at everything. There was a PS4, so they were Sony people. Cisco would appreciate that.

"Yes, and another safe house that Mick and I will be unable to come back to now that you know about it," Snart said, pulling a duffel out of somewhere and going over to where their clothes were stored. 

"I'm sure you'll manage," Barry told him, annoyance starting to simmer just beneath his skin. 

"We always do."

Barry turned to say something to Snart, probably to tell him that he should be grateful that Barry was even helping or that he and Rory wouldn't have to leave in a place like this if they could just stop stealing shit. Maybe he was even going to throw in a remark about how this was no way to take care of an omega. But it was that moment that Snart pulled a very expensive knotting dildo out of the plastic drawers and put it in the duffel, so all the words died on his tongue.

Oh.

Right.

He looked at the wall like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"He doesn't get heats often," Snart said into the silence.

Barry chance a look at him, finding him staring off at nothing, duffel in his hand. He had this crease between his brows like he was trying to puzzle out a problem. Barry had never seen him look like that, thoughts turned inward instead of studying his surroundings and parsing weaknesses.

"Probably 'cause of his age and his messed up hormones. He hasn't had a heat in almost three years. I thought they stopped." Snart clucked his tongue and put his free hand in his pocket, looking at him. "I should have made sure."

He didn't know the words to respond to that, so instead he asked, "Ready?"

Snart nodded, and they were off to the hotel room. 

The sight that greeted them was Rory, naked and lounging on the bed against a throne of pillows, a sheet tossed over his thighs and barely covering what was between them. He glanced at them when they came in, a smile creeping across his face as he reclined further and leaned his head back. "Hey." The lust in his eyes was unmistakable. 

"Well, you look comfortable," Snart remarked with a chuckle, sliding off his parka and tossing it in the general direction of the chair in the corner.

"I am," Rory replied, eyes on Barry. "So comfortable."

Jesus Christ. Barry took in a shaky breath of the scent that was pouring out of Rory, letting his lips part so he could feel it roll against the roof of his mouth. Rory smelled like sticky sweet cinnamon-y syrup on freshly made waffles. Or something. Barry couldn't think properly. All he could think about was what it would be like to have that scent muddling up his nasal passages as he licked the salty sweat off of Rory's neck. 

He'd never seen Rory's burn scars before. Caitlin had described them, had called them twisted and unfortunate. Barry wanted to touch them.

"Barry," Snart said, snapping his attention away. "Thanks for everything and all that, but you can go now."

"Oh," Barry said, blinking away those thoughts as best he could. "Right."

"Go?" Rory growled from his pillow nest. "What do you mean, he can go?" 

"Mick," Snart tried to interrupt.

"Nah. Hell nah." Rory shook his head, rocking forward and getting his knees under him. The sheet fell away, revealing his cock nested in thick, dark curled hair. "Get over here and fuck me, Scarlet."

As Snart sputtered a protest, Barry could only think, _Sir, yes sir._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Barry and his one brain cell being influenced by pheromones. He stood no chance.
> 
> If you are hoping that I have a plan for this story, I'm sorry to disappoint, because I don't. Just, a lot of porn and then the fall out and I haven't plotted past that, ahem.
> 
> Don't worry, Barry will start referring to Leonard and Mick with their first names when the fucking begins. It gets pretty informal when you've got your penis in orifices.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you ever set out to write 3.5k words and write 6.5k instead? Haha. ;.;
> 
> I didn't really edit this because I hate reading my own shit. Anyone wanna be my beta? Hit me up on my [tumblr,](thesushiowl.tumblr.com) yo. I can only promise me yelling incoherent about how threesomes require math and that's not fair.

Three steps got him to the bed. Barry took them at a normal speed, which was slow for him, but still faster than his brain could process. He was reaching out for Rory--no, Mick--ready to touch and kiss and get all in that, but a solid force stopped him, landing hard on his chest and making him grunt. He looked down, finding a hand, and followed the arm it was attached to up to a shoulder and from there to Leonard's stern face. He blinked at him.

"What?" he asked, unable to process why Leonard was keeping him away from Mick, especially when Mick so obviously wanted him.

"I don't think either of you are in the right state of mind to consent right now," Leonard told him, and that was when Barry finally smelled it. Cool spearmint was wafting off of Leonard, starting to break through the cloying scent of sweet, spicy cinnamon.

Mick made a noise of discontent behind Leonard. Barry mirrored it, though his sounded more like a whine.

"Stop it," Leonard told them, before he looked at Mick. "We have a plan for this, remember? You eat and hydrate first, then fuck fest. You know this, but you've got alpha scent messing with your head. And you," He turned his sharp eyes on Barry. "You don't even like us, and yet you're willing to have sex with us, all of the sudden?"

Barry could hear the logic in that, really he could. He was just having trouble focusing on it. "I--well."

"Sit," Leonard said, walking Barry back until he more or less fell into the chair in the corner, right on Leonard's parka.

"Boss," Mick complained from the bed, flopping over on his side.

"Food and at least 16 ounces of water first," Leonard told him evenly, rubbing at his brow with his fingers. "If you too can keep your paws off each other long enough for that, then we will talk about Barry joining us during your heat. If he still wants to."

"I will," Barry told him all too eagerly.

Mick chuckled as Leonard leveled an unimpressed look at him.

Licking his lips, Barry pressed on. "What do you want to eat, Mick? I'll get it for you." At Leonard's squint, he added, "If I leave, I'll be able to think straight, won't I?" He took no small amount of joy in watching Leonard try to figure out how to make that sound like a bad idea when it was obviously a good one. So there.

"Pizza," Mick said after a moment, shrugging at Barry's face of B _ut you could have literally anything._ "I need carbs." He rolled onto his back and laced his fingers over his belly. He looked so comfortable like that. It made Barry want to join him.

Instead, he stood and straightened his jacket. "Ever had pizza from Keystone?" He grinned when they both looked at him. "Best there is."

"I want meat and mushrooms," Mick said, stretching out his limbs and looking too damn tantalizing. When he scratched at his chest, his thumb grazing over his nipple, Barry almost forgot what they were talking about.

He managed to keep himself mostly in check though, looking to Leonard. "What about you?"

Leonard could obviously see right through him and had it written all over his face how predictable he found Barry. "Chicken, onions and tomatoes." He lifted a finger. "Don't forget the bread sticks and marinara sauce."

"Only an idiot would forget that," Barry said, and before Leonard could call him just that, he added, "Back in a flash."

He didn't leave fast enough to miss Leonard's groan. Hey, two could play at the bad pun game.

* * *

After ordering and finding a place to sit and wait for the food, Barry was definitely feeling more clearheaded and like himself. First, he had to get over the blinding mortification that he had nearly mounted Mick without even thinking about safety. They only thing he'd been feeling was want, both to make sure that Mick got what he needed and, probably more importantly, that he was the one that gave it to him. He was never going to live this down.

Leonard was going to give him enough hell after this, but his own friends? Oh god, they were going to have ammunition for years. When he inevitably had to fight Leonard and Mick again, there were going to be countless and no doubt very creative remarks thrown his way about not even needing to use his speed. He could just seduce his way out of Rogue encounters now.

With a groan, he rubbed his hands over his face and wished that his life wasn't so complicated, even when he knew it was this way out of his own doing. Seriously, he was contemplating spending a heat with Mick Rory and Leonard Snart. They were his enemies or whatever. Rogues. _His_ Rogues. 

He briefly and quite manically wondered if Ollie ever had this issue. The giggle that burst out of him drew a few looks.

He rubbed his eyes, knowing that all of this would have consequences. They were unavoidable, of course, but he felt he could deal with them. Because, despite the fact that it was all very absurd, he had yet to be tempted to change his mind. He wanted Mick, and, by extension, wanted Leonard. They were both very attractive. He'd thought about them before, in the way he thought about a lot of people being hot. He was single and lonely, and his mind had been a hyperactive traitor before lightning forked through it and electrified his brain cells.

No matter the consequences, he was doing this. (As long as Mick and Leonard still wanted to, of course.) He could separate Flash business from pleasure, in the long run. (Probably.) He and Leonard had an amenable relationship, which probably contributed to why Leonard hadn't frozen him when he'd gotten too close to Mick. There was trust there, somewhere.

Leonard could trust him to take care of Mick during his heat. He could more or less trust Leonard not to stab him in the kidney. Mick was a total wild card, of course, but he was so overrun with heat need that he'd probably let any alpha have him right then. Barry tried not to a feel a sting as that thought crossed his mind. But now it was there, he couldn't immediately put it aside.

That might have been part of the reason that Leonard didn't let him at Mick right away. Had other alphas been around Mick at his most vulnerable? Had they tried to take advantage? What had Leonard done? Killed them? He might have had to, because there wasn't much to be done against a heat pheromone addled alpha... especially if they were a meta.

Barry chewed on his bottom lip. At first, he'd thought Leonard had just been possessive, and while that was part of it, the job of protecting Mick during his heat fell exclusively on him, didn't it? And Barry... Well, Barry had put them in prison a few times. From Leonard's point of view, he couldn't really be trusted 100%. God, he'd been so stupid to think that Leonard was just being petty. And he'd been too hopped up on Mick's scent to think Leonard was much more than an obstacle.

"Order for Barry Allen?" 

Barry hopped up and went to collect his food. There were five pizzas, two orders of bread sticks, and twenty buffalo wings. He had a hunch that Mick would like them. It took some balancing, but he waddled out of the store with the food in his hands, his chin on top of the boxes, and promised the worried workers that he had, no really.

One of the boxes of bread sticks disappeared somewhere in the four hundred miles between Keystone and Central City.

"I'm back," he announced, nudging his way into the room mostly with his hip after getting the door open.

"Hell yeah," Mick praised, holding out his arms for food without leaving his position.

"That was quick. I hope that's not how you perform in all things, Barry." Leonard had moved to the bed, one of his arms around Mick. He had lost his shoes at some point but was otherwise still clothed. He had long, thin toes. Elegant, Barry's bastard brain supplied.

"How long did it take you to come up with that one?" Barry asked, moving to the bed and knee-walking to the middle to spread the boxes out.

Leonard's lips twitched as he reached for one of the boxes. "Well, you are the fastest man alive. It makes me wonder if you earned that name before or after you got your powers."

Mick chuckled around a mouth full of pizza, his box open in his lap.

Barry could admit when he was beat, especially when he couldn't come up with a suitable comeback that didn't involve the band Coldplay. He just rolled his eyes and opened up one of his boxes, deciding that stuffing his face was easier than keeping up with Leonard's wit, especially when the smell of cinnamon was creeping up his nostrils again. He was determined to keep a level head though, even if it meant avoiding looking at Mick's naked chest.

"Have you ever helped an omega through their heat before?"

Barry lifted his eyes, finding Leonard staring at him while chewing, most of a bread dangling from his long fingers. He felt his face heat up under that scrutinizing, icy stare. He shook his head. "I haven't," he admitted, jerking his gaze away. "I've never had the opportunity before."

"It's not rocket science, kid," Mick said, stuffing the crust of his slice into his cheek like a hamster. "It's just fucking."

"Which, I assume, you have done before." Leonard tilted his head, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. 

"I'm not a virgin," Barry said, all too quickly. His face burned. "I haven't had any complaints."

"To your face," Mick and Leonard told him at the same time. Mick threw his head back laughing, and even Leonard snorted a laugh out around his food.

Barry tried not to smile. He failed. 

When Mick found the wings, he immediately huddled the box against his stomach and went to town devouring them. Barry had finished off his first pizza and was starting on his second. Usually he ate faster than this because he had to be ready for a catastrophe, but right now he was more than happy to just taste his food for once. He hadn't lied about the pizza from Keystone being the best there was. After a couple slices, he realized how quiet it was and looked up to find Leonard watching him, analyzing. "What?" he asked.

Leonard tapped his chin, prompting Barry to scrub at his face with a napkin. Yeah, okay, well pizza eating was messy business. Sauce went everywhere all the time. "You eat a lot," Leonard observed, his eyes narrowing.

"Well, I'm a speedster. We found out pretty early on that I burn through the normal amount of calories fast."

"How long does it take you to go through your current amount when you move at normal speeds?"

What the hell was this question? Barry flicked his eyes around. "I--I don't know. I haven't moved slow for a long time. A while, I guess?"

"How long is your refractory period?" 

"Excuse me?" Barry squawked.

Leonard grinned, looking pretty villainous at the moment. Beside him, Mick seemed to catch on before Barry did and started to laugh with buffalo sauce in his facial hair. "I was just thinking," Leonard said, mostly into the back of his hand as he was trying not to devolve into laughter. "If your refractory period is as fast as you are, it ultimately won't matter if you come in three seconds." He ended on a wheeze, covering his eyes and falling against Mick as laughter shook him.

Barry pulled his lips to the side as the other two men laughed as his expense. "Haha," he said with the flattest tone his could manage. "You're so funny. I'm in stitches." He wasn't sure if they were trying to goad him into proving him, but challenge accepted. He was going to show them exactly what he could do and how long he could do it for, dammit, and they were going to be so impressed that they'd never tease him again. Yeah.

Sure.

He never really got past playground logic.

When there was nothing left of the food but Leonard's crusts and chicken bones, Barry zipped the remains outside into a dumpster and was back before Mick and Leonard even realized he'd left. He was eager, okay? He also had something to prove. 

"Alright," Leonard said, turning and opening the nightstand to pull out a strip of condom and drop them on the bed. There was nothing so definitive as that. He looked between Barry and Mick. Barry nodded wordlessly. Mick let out a grunt.

"Let's get this fucking show on the road," Mick growled, lifting onto his knees and reaching forward to grab Barry by his shirt and jerk him forward.

It was a more aggressive move than Barry was expecting, but maybe he should have. This was Mick, after all, a guy that had been burned so badly that a normal person would have gone into shock, but he'd jumped out of an ambulance and booked it like a madman. Barry had to respect that, as much as he didn't understand and kind of feared that level of intensity. And here Mick was, dragging him half across the bed and mashing their lips together.

"Mm!" Yeah, Barry was into it.

Though, after the initial smashing of lips and teeth and once Barry had his legs under him again, the kiss changed. Still just as firm, but Mick wasn't sucking Barry's tongue out of his head of biting at his mouth. He rolled his tongue against Barry's, tip flicking along the roof of his mouth, then backed off, inviting Barry to chase. Mick leaned back, and Barry followed, one hand on the bed and the other going to Mick's chest. He paused when his fingers hit gnarled skin, ghosting across it, unsure if he should touch.

Mick's hand caught his wrist and pulled Barry's hand firm against his scars, breaking the kiss to nip at his bottom lip. "If you do it too light, it tickles."

"It's okay to touch them?" Barry asked, his voice a lot lower and rougher than he's heard it. He was pretty sure it was because all he could smell is Mick, and Mick smelled fucking delicious.

"Yeah," Mick replied, actually shivering as Barry's fingers curled against his flesh, digging in. "I like it." He turned his head, and Leonard met him, catching his jaw with his hand and kissing him until he whimpered.

Barry watched, knowing it made him a deviant, but they were gorgeous together. He could have studied it, could have wrote a whole damn thesis about how their years, maybe decades long bond had made them know each other the way no other people did. The way Leonard was kissing Mick was making his cheat rise and fall fast and his heart pound against Barry's hand. And the desperate way that Mick was tugging at Leonard's sweater had him clutching right back.

Yeah, he could have written a character study or painted a damn portrait, but all he wanted was to get all up in that.

Catching Mick under his knees, he moved back, forcing Mick to drop down into his pillow nest with a grunt. Barry smiled ever so innocently at him, poised where he was between Mick thick, spread thighs, before leaning down and putting his mouth against the scars on his chest. He wasn't gentle, per Mick's request, instead using his tongue and teeth and sucking hard at the bumpy skin. Mick arched against his ministrations, hooking one leg around Barry's and squeezing to make sure he stayed where he was.

As if Barry wanted to be anywhere else right then.

He put his hands to good use too, gripping at Mick's arms as his mouth continued along his chest. He found a nipple, half gnarled and half smooth, sensitive skin, and sucked it hard, causing Mick to jerk and let out a shout. That was okay, of course, because heat rooms were sound proof. He scraped his teeth against that nipple, wanting to making him cry out again, and he got more than he asked for when Mick arched up against him, grabbed his head and gasped his name like a plea.

His ego didn't need this, but he sure liked it.

He switched to Mick's other nipple, this one having escaped the burns, and lavished it with similar attention. Mick pulled him in harder, so Barry chewed as much as sucked on his nipple, trying to give him what he wanted. Mick was growling under him, smelling more potently like cinnamon and starting to taste like sweat. Barry wanted to bury his face in Mick's chest and just take in lungfuls of him.

But then Mick jerked with a gasp, not from whatever Barry was doing, because he let go of his hair and gripped the sheets, throwing back his head with a curse. Barry pushed up on his hand, looking down at him curiously. Then he heard the sound of soft, wet squelching under the sound of Mick's ragged panting. Eyes shooting down, Barry found Leonard's hand working between Mick's legs, two fingers sliding in and out of the hidden channel behind his balls. 

Barry had no words for how hot that was, and he couldn't even see the proper details.

"Fuck," he whispered, unable to keep from leaning back so he could get a better angle. Mick obligingly spread his legs further, showing off his glistening slick folds, bordered by the same dark, wiry hair that surrounded his hard, trembling cock. He had an idea then, and he glanced at Leonard, who lifted a brow in either question or challenge, he didn't know. With a huff, he took Mick's dick in his hand and leaned in to suck the head between his lips. Mick made an interesting noise.

Barry had never given a blowjob before. But, he'd received enough to know what felt good, and that was good enough as experience, wasn't it? 

It wasn't, he found out after he'd managed to get a rhythm going and went down too far only to choke when the head of Mick's dick hit his uvula. He drew back with a gasp, spit oozing down the corners of his mouth, and tried to get his breath back. He was ready to go back in for a second try when Leonard beat him to it, swallowing Mick down in one go. Okay, Barry would have been annoyed if that weren't the most amazing thing he'd ever seen. 

"Fuck, boss," Mick whined, putting his hand on the back of Leonard's head and scratching through his short hair. "That--fuck."

Leonard's eyelids fluttered at the attention, eyes almost closing, but he swiveled his eyes over to Barry, who sucked in a breath at the intense stare. Leonard hollowed his cheeks, pulling a whimper out of Mick, as his fingers slowed their slick movement and drew out. His fingers were shiny with slick as they parted Mick's folds, eyes pointedly flicking down and then at Barry again.

Oh, right, yeah, that was something he could do for sure. He shifted on the bed, shedding his jacket finally, and reclined next to Mick. He caught his mouth in a kiss as his hand found its way between his legs, two fingers slipping between his slippery folds and inside him. Mick keened into his mouth, lips falling open to pant hard. Barry smeared his mouth down Mick's jaw in a feral imitation of a kiss, his fingers dragging along Mick's warm, slick inner walls. 

Mick was trembling, clenching every now and then, like he was close. Barry slipped another finger inside of him, stretching them out a few times, before he pressed them to the little bump and vibrated them. He didn't play dirty often, but when he did, he went for it.

"Ugn, Christ!" Mick gasped, head snapping back as he clutched at them, shaking. As Leonard lifted his head, wiping at his mouth, he clenched and shivered around Barry's fingers. Barry worked him through it, rubbing the pads of his fingers against his g-spot until he laughed and reached down to swat at Barry's wrist. "Fuckin' quit it, goddamn."

"But I like it," Barry said, withdrawing his fingers anyway and grinning at Mick, who just flopped against the bed. 

"I can tell," Mick said, waving his hand. "Gimme a minute though."

"What did you do to make him come so hard?" Leonard asked, reclining on Mick's other side and squinted at Barry.

"Nothing special," Barry said, reaching across Mick and laying a few fingers against Leonard's arm. He vibrated them just a little, smirking when Leonard's brows lifted in surprise. "Just a little localized speed trick."

"Interesting," Leonard said, shifting and grabbing Barry's hand. "Useful." He brought Barry's fingers--the ones that had just been inside Mick--to his mouth and licked them, making sure to slide his tongue along the complete length of them and against the soft, sensitive skin between them. He sucked them into his mouth, eyes on Barry as he sucked, cheeks going hollow.

"That's hot," Mick said, which is exactly what Barry thought, but likely couldn't communicate beyond a keysmash-like garble of sounds right then.

Leonard drew his mouth back, flicking his tongue against the tips. "Take your clothes off, Barry."

"Okay," Barry replied shakily. He pushed himself up and more or less tore his shirt off. He undid his pants and dropped down to push them and his underwear down past his raging erection and off. Well, almost off. He cursed and sat up, pulling off his sneakers and socks and then kicked his jeans and underwear off. He turned to look at them, ready for more instruction.

He wasn't expecting they way they would be looking at him though. He guessed that seeing him in skin-tight not-leather didn't do his body justice, because they were staring like he's lied to them. Had they expecting skinny? He knew he was covered toned muscle. He had a runner's body. He touched his stomach. "Yeah, the lightning gave me abs."

That seemed to startle them out of their reverie, because Mick let out a little bark of a laugh and sat up. "Maybe I need to get struck by lightning." Leonard hummed noncommittally. 

"No, you're perfect," Barry found himself saying.

"Oh god, shut up," Mick said with a snort, before he patted the place next to him. 

Barry went, plopping on his side and going for a kiss, but suddenly Mick was pushing him on his back before settling into a straddle on his hips. Oh, oh hell, this was how that were going to do it? Barry may have been a speedster, but even this may have been too much for his heart.

"I'm gonna ride you until you knot me," Mick told him, and he whined, hips tipping up, needy. Mick put his hands on Barry's shoulders, leaning over him and looking over at Leonard. "Fuck my ass, boss?"

"Gladly," Leonard said. 

The bed shifted where Leonard was, but Barry couldn't focus on him, only on Mick and the absolute furnace between those thick thighs. He could smell his slick again. If he moved, he could probably rub his dick through that wetness. His hands slipped up Mick's thighs to his hips. Why wasn't Mick moving? Mick should be moving. They should be fucking.

Then Mick lifted his hips and there was a hand on his dick. Yes, this was it. They were going to--oh, that was Leonard's hand rolling a condom onto his dick. Right, yes, safety first and all that. Somewhere in his heat scent addled brain, a thought banged around that it was actually good that Leonard was here. He'd have to buy him some chocolates or some more bread sticks or something after this. He couldn't think very well at the moment.

Mick settled on his hips again, unfortunately not speared on Barry's dick, but sitting right on it, which _hngh_ , because that alone felt so damn good. Mick's hands moved up and down Barry's chest and stomach, teasing his nipples and stroking along his rib cage. It was so good, oddly gentle, and Barry let his eyes fall shut so he could focus on the feeling of Mick's touch.

But then Mick let out a little grunt, and Barry cracked open an eyes to see Leonard behind Mick, kissing his bent neck as his hand worked behind him. Leonard had finally deigned to removed his clothes, and Barry could see his bare legs and shoulders peeking out from behind Mick's frame. He had his legs on either side of Barry's, a perfect position to fuck Mick from behind and also control the pace. Barry felt that was a very Captain Cold position to be in. Rude.

"Boss," Mick panted, dropping his head forward and leaned more over Barry. His cock was already fat again, drooling between their stomachs.

"Almost," Leonard promised, arm working further. A moment or two later, he withdrew his hand and turned, grabbing a condom for himself by the sound of crinkling plastic. The change in his position revealed his side for a split second, and Barry swore he saw a tattoo on his hip, so he suddenly had many questions that he was going to ask later. 

"Lift up," Leonard said, hand on Mick's hip. He took Barry's dick in his other hand, guiding Mick down and _oh holy fucking god._

Barry couldn't breathe. It was too much. Mick was too warm, too tight, too slick. He was absolutely everything that Barry had wanted and nothing like he'd imagined, because his brain was not nearly this creative. He could feel himself sucking in air like he was dying. There were strong hands on his shoulders again. He looked up just in time to see Mick crane his head back as Leonard got into position behind him, a low moan escaping his throat as Leonard's hips met his ass.

God, did Mick just get tighter? Could he actually feel--?!

That was when Mick started to move, slow and rough, just lifting his hips then dropping them back down again. It was too much. It wasn't enough. It was perfect. Barry was going to die. Was he making noise? He felt like he was making noise, probably loudly by the way his throat was straining, but he couldn't tell. He could hear Mick though, loud and wild as he picked up the pace. He could hear Leonard too, low and raspy.

Time meant nothing to him. He lost it, and not in a way that meant he would be hunted by a time wraith. Instead, he stopped counting the seconds, stopped worrying about how if he wasn't fast enough, someone he loved would die. He felt every muscle in his body that was always wound so tight loosen. He was free. 

He was also about to come, and he had no idea if it was too early, but he could feel his knot starting to expand. He tried to hold on, to be good and last. He probably should have kept his eyes shut, because the sight of Mick snapping his hips almost did him in right there. Mick's face, slack with lust and his mouth open and panting was a thing of pure beauty. There was also Leonard behind him, lips to Mick's ear, whispering things that Barry couldn't hear. Maybe they were dirty. Maybe they were loving. But Barry had no right to them. Then Leonard gasped and bit down on Mick's neck, keening against his skin. Mick's hips stuttered before slamming down one last time, his fingernails digging into Barry's shoulders. 

That was the end of Barry for sure. He gasped as Mick clenched at his dick, his knot ballooning to fill the space. The way that Mick clutched at his knot, locking them together, made his vision white out. God, this... This was...

"Fuckin' hell," Mick breathed out, falling forward onto Barry's chest and knocking the wind out of him.

"Agreed," Leonard said on a sigh, collapsing next to them in an inelegant sprawl.

Barry put his arms around Mick, snuggling his shoulder. "Yeah."

He didn't know the post-knotting protocol. He knew he was supposed to wait until it went down before trying to pull out, but he had no idea how long it lasted since he'd never knotted inside someone before. So, he just petted up and down Mick's back and along his thighs, shivering each time Mick's hole fluttered on his knot. He listened to Mick and Leonard breathe. He was pretty sure that Leonard was going to fall asleep, which was kind of funny to him.

Then, he remembered a thought from before. "Hey," he said quietly to Leonard, who shifted to look at him with a soft "mm?" He smiled at how soft Leonard looked after an orgasm. "What's that tattoo on your hip?" 

Leonard's expression immediately went sour, but Mick actually laughed, turning his head to tuck it under Barry's chin. "Boss, tell him the story."

"I won't," Leonard said in a huff, turning on his side away from them.

Barry, having obviously taken a leave of his senses, reached down and pinched Leonard's butt. The reaction was immediate and hilarious as Leonard practically jackknifed off the bed and onto the floor. Mick howled with laughter, which made his body shake around Barry's dick, and that was totally amazing.

Leonard's face appeared over the edge of the bed. Well, half of it, just his angrily squinting eyes, which reminded Barry of a pissed off cat. "You really want to know about my tattoo?" he said, lifting up to get back on the bed. 

"I really do," Barry said, lacing his fingers at Mick's lower back. Having Mick's weight on him was comfortable. So was having Leonard, naked and far less snarky, next to him. He wanted to stay like this forever, which was unfair, because Mick was probably going to be really sore if his knot didn't go down soon. Still, he could savor it while it lasted.

"It's not that interesting of a story," Leonard told him, stretching out again and tossing his arm over his eyes.

"Liar," Mick muttered with a snort. "It's a _great_ story."

"See, now you have to tell me, because I'm not going to let up until you do," Barry informed him, flashing a grin when Leonard peeked out from under his arm.

"Fine," Leonard said like it pained him. He let out a sigh through his nose and turned on his side so the tattoo was actually only display instead of just being a vague spot in Barry's memory.

"Is that a dolphin?" Barry squeaked. This was much better than anything he'd imagined. It was a dolphin, a badly drawn one with poor color saturation. It barely had a face anymore.

"Listen," Leonard said, lifting a finger. He looked like he was going to say something, but he was interrupted as Mick started to descend into an absolute giggle fit on top of Barry. "Shut up. You've heard the story already."

"Doesn't make it any less funny," Mick wheezed.

Rolling his eyes, Leonard looked back at Barry. "Firstly, I was nineteen. Secondly, it was a dare. Lisa dared me to get a tattoo from her friend's older brother after letting her friend pick. Lisa chose the placement. Children are creative and sadistic, so I ended up with a dolphin on my hip. There was alcohol involved, so I didn't have my wits about me."

Barry tried not to start laughing, but Mick's giggles were infectious. He hugged him tighter, snickering against the top of his smooth head. That was an infinitely better story than he could have imagined, and now he couldn't breathe because his lungs were spasming with laughter. He threw his head back on the pillow, giggles going silent and breathless. Oh, this hurt. His chest was in actual pain, but he couldn't stop. He was just imagining little Lisa Snart insuring her brother would never be able to take off his pants without having to explain a cartoon dolphin on his hip.

Priceless. 

"No, by all means, choke on your own laughter," Leonard said, and Barry honked like a goose before covering his mouth.

Mick managed to recover well before Barry did. "It is a funny story, boss."

"Mm." Leonard shifted on the bed, and Barry suddenly felt fingers on his taint, causing him to jerk.

"Ah, what the, hey!" he managed, trying to close his legs at the same time as open them further. His hips didn't like that motion one bit.

"Your knot's still inflated," Leonard said, his fingers teasing along where he and Mick were connected.

Barry shuddered at the feeling, before he gasped as Mick clenched down on him. "Yeah, I--I can tell," he managed, hugging Mick and stuffing his face into his neck. "Is this revenge for me laughing at your tattoo?"

"Just wondering how long it'll take for it to go down."

"I don't--I haven't ever--" Well, this was embarrassing.

"Maybe you need to come again," Mick said, hefting himself on Barry's lap again. He winced as his knee gave a various obvious pop. "Maybe this wasn't the greatest position."

Barry was definitely on board with another orgasm, but not at the expense of Mick's comfort. "Here," he said, sitting up slowly and pulling Mick's hips against his so no uncomfortable pulling happened. He turned, laying Mick down on the bed so his legs would be in a better position. "How's this?"

Mick stretched out his legs, rotating his ankles, then moaned as Barry massaged at his calf lightly. "Much." He dropped his legs, letting them lie naturally. He gazed up at Barry with half-lidded eyes. "Go ahead."

With a snort, Barry got himself situated and rocked forward. The gasp that Mick let out could have been called a pleasurable one, but the noise from between them lacked a certain... squelch. "You're not wet anymore," Barry observed aloud, during a snort from Mick.

Leonard put his hand over his eyes, muttering something that definitely had "stupid alphas" in it, before he leveled at look at Barry. "For fuck's sake, Barry. You have to turn him on first."

"I thought--"

"Mistake," Leonard said, which made Mick laugh. "Do what you did last time." He turned and caught Mick's mouth, swallowing his chuckle as he pressed his tongue past his lips.

Barry got with the program after a few seconds of awed staring, dipping his head to flick his tongue over Mick's nipple. A bit of sucking and nipping later, Mick was twitching against him, pushing his chest up. Barry could feel Mick's cock between them, hard and wet at the tip, so he grabbed it and stroked it in time with the abuse he was giving Mick's chest. He could hear Mick's soft moans, even muffled by Leonard's mouth as they were.

He rocked his hips experimentally, and Mick groaned hard as Barry's knot slipped deeper into him. He did it again, working up a steady rhythm that sent little shocks of pleasure sliding up his spine. This was different, not nearly as urgent now that Mick's needs were taken care of for now. They could go slow and really enjoy it. He huffed out a curse against Mick's chest, pushing further up the bed with his knees and blanketing Mick's completely to bury his face into his neck.

"Barry," Mick whispered, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and holding him tight. "Fuck, that's good."

"Yeah, yeah, it's good, so good," Barry babbled, reaching down to hitch Mick's leg up against his hip, changing the angle and making them both groan. "God, fuck." He braced his hand back against the bed as Mick wrapped his legs around him. Heat was pooling in his belly, teasing his orgasm. His hips snapped forward to chase it, and Mick whimpered against him.

"Easy, Barry," Leonard said, his cool hands coming to grasp Barry's hips and slow his pace again. "He's too sensitive for that. You don't want to hurt him, do you?"

No. That was the last thing that Barry wanted. What he wanted was to bring them both to indescribable bliss, for them to forget who they were and know only what they all made together. Before, he'd seen Mick coming apart when Barry had vibrated his fingers, so... He'd never done this before, but if he could do the same to his dick then...

"Barry!" Mick cried out, arching against him and scratching his nails down Barry's back, clenching so hard on Barry's knot.

It was too much and everything that Barry needed to follow right after him. He lost himself for a moment, so warm and safe and comfortable, and he came back to himself draped over Mick, panting as his brain tried to reboot. 

"Holy fuck," Mick managed to say, his voice absolutely wrecked.

"Yeah," Barry agreed, a smile so big and stupid spreading across his face. "I can't feel my toes."

"Lucky you. Pretty sure I'm paralyzed from the waist down," Mick said, sounding groggy.

"Should I apologize or say you're welcome?" Barry asked, still sex stupid.

"Oh god, get off me, you shit," Mick said fondly.

It took a bit, but Barry did manage to push himself up on arms that felt like noodles. He felt fucked out and ready for a nap. He probably needed to take a shower though, but he had to take care of the condom first. He went to grab the tip and froze. Oh. 

Oh fuck.

"Do you want your customary post-sex half gallon of Rocky Road?" Leonard asked Mick, and Barry looked up with a horrified expression to see him kiss Mick on his forehead. "Or do you want to break tradition with something else?"

"Guys," Barry tried to say, his voice breaking.

"You know what I want?" Mick said, looking up at Leonard. "Churros with a shit ton of chocolate sauce."

"That sounds tasty, actually. I want hot chocolate too, if we're just going to abandon sense when it comes to sugar."

"H--hey, guys," Barry tried again, but they were too busy gazing at each other with these soft expressions. He cleared his throat. "Guys," he said, much louder this time. They turned to look at him, confusion coloring their faces. He grimaced at them, feeling a sick feeling settle in his stomach. "Uh, the condom broke."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sorry.
> 
> Please don't yell at me. I'm a crier.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CAUTION: Feelings Incoming
> 
> You have been warned! :[
> 
> Also, not edited because I didn't wanna.

"How did you break the condom?" Leonard asked as Barry had a small, internal panic attack. He didn't sound all that serious, mostly just amused. Barry knew his face was doing interesting things, and Leonard always took joy in his torment.

As Barry dragged his hands down his face, Mick piped up with, "Probably happened when he vibrated his cock inside me." He grinned when Barry sent him a betrayed look, then stretched like a sunning cat. How dare he be sexy right now? 

"Barry!" Leonard gasped, half admonishing, half laughter.

"Well, condoms are meant to handle a certain level of friction!" It wasn't the best defense, since at the time he hadn't given two shits about the condom. He'd just wanted Mick to feel good, and he'd succeeded. 

Leonard's salt and pepper eyebrow crept up his forehead. "I'm sure your dick's a bit more intense than a fucking Hitachi."

Barry squinted at Leonard, brain wheels turning even as Mick let out a series of chuckles. "I don't know what that means," he admitted. He peeled that wrecked condom off and slid off the bed to toss it. "Anyway, what are we going to do about it?" He stood next to the bed, hands on his hips. It was an automatic Flash pose, and it probably wasn't nearly as effective while he was naked.

Leonard rolled his eyes then shook his head. "You are going to chill out. It's fine. We'll go to a clinic after Mick's heat is finished. There are medications for this."

Barry tipped his head. "I can go get it now," he offered, wanting to be helpful.

Leonard just shook his head as Mick made a face and looked away. "Can't do it until his heat is over. That level of hormones will just make him really sick."

"Oh," Barry said, eyes sliding over to Mick. He looked--well, not upset, but he was being quiet and picking at the sheets. Barry opened his mouth to ask him if he was okay, but then his phone started screaming in his pile of clothes. "Ah, hang on." He fished out his phone, looking over the message from Cisco. "It's an emergency. They need the Flash," he told them, an apology written all over his face.

Leonard's expression was unreadable.

Mick didn't even look at him.

"I'll--I'll be back soon. I promise." Before he could say anything else to completely disappoint them, he was in his clothes and out of the room. 

After he collected his suit and comm from the lab, he went to meet the others at the sight of the catastrophe. "What have we got?" he asked as he skidded to a halt next to Cisco in his full Vibe gear.

"Oh, you know, it's Tuesday, so it's flying monkeys," Cisco told him, pointing up a through the park where a couple hundred or so flying robot monkeys were screeching, spitting green fire, chasing joggers, and just being generally awful. 

"Okay, why though?" Barry whined, gesturing to the scene. 

"Someone saw The Wizard of Oz too many times?" Cisco shrugged, before he blasted a monkey that got too close. "We need to put them down before we lose track of them though."

"Got it." Barry zipped off, punching monkeys left and right and spiriting some pedestrians out of the park.

"So," Cisco said into his comm. "Where ya been, buddy?"

"Uh, I don't think this is the time for that conversation," Barry replied, feeling his face warm up even as he punched a robot monkey into a trash can, which made garbage explode everywhere. Oops.

"You went off the grid though," Cisco said as Barry quickly picked up the mess before grabbing one monkey by the tail and spinning around to whack another monkey with it. They exploded with a pair of screams that Barry would probably hear in his nightmares.

"I'm taking care of something," Barry told him, racing toward a woman with a monkey that was trying to chew off her scalp. He punched it to pieces and got her to safety.

"Still?" Cisco asked in the middle of blasting a monkey off a light pole. "What's so urgent to take you away from the team? We can help!"

"No, no, no," Barry told him swiftly, blush burning his cheeks. "No, you can't. It's private. Don't worry. I got it."

"How can it not be Flash business if it has to do with Captain Cold and Heatwave?" That was Caitlin chiming in on the conversation from the lab.

"Uh," Barry tried, trying to come up with a logical excuse and failing. "How--how do you know it has to do with them?" He could hear the eye-rolling over the comms. 

"Because," Cisco started in his I-can't-believe-I-have-to-explain voice. "You went to stop a jewelry heist of which they were the culprits. Then you whisk them off somewhere and come back to the lab to say you're going off comms? Then you vanish."

"And you come back for clothes and my car," Caitlin interjected. "I--I need that back by Thursday, by the way. No pressure."

"Yeah! And you vanish again!" Cisco went on. "Snart and Rory aren't in lock up. I checked."

Shit, they were onto him. "They--" He swallowed a few times as he smashes some monkeys together. "They just needed my help."

"With what?" Cisco and Caitlin asked at the same time.

"Nothing illegal," he was quick to say. "But, it's private."

Suspicion crackled over the comm line. Thankfully, it was that moment that manic laughter burst out above them, and they looked to see a woman flying above them. On a broom. 

"Really?" Barry asked, staring up at her.

"I can't think of a name for her that isn't copyright infringement," Cisco complained quietly.

It wasn't easy to take down a woman zooming around on a broom and firing green fire out of a wand at him, but Barry managed. She ended up being not a witch, but an engineering student with green paint on her face and a broom with really advanced hover technology. He didn't stay to find out her motive, only waiting until she was in cuffs to zip back to the lab for his clothes and then to hotel.

"Okay, I'm back!" he announced as he opened the room door. "Sorry it took me so... long?"

The room was empty. There weren't any clothes strewn across the floor, and the duffel bag Leonard had packed was gone. He stood there for a near solid minute, just staring at the unmade bed. Where had they gone? Maybe to the clinic to get the medication, just to have it so Mick could take it when his heat ended? But then why would Leonard take the duffel?

He walked over to the bed, sitting down and chewing his lip. Surely they were going to come back? Mick's heat wasn't over yet. He needed to be some place warm, soft and secure. He needed to be knotted. And Barry was... Well, that did have that dildo.

He got up, leaving the room and going to reception. The same omega was there, and he smiled brightly at him. "Mr. Allen," he said, tipping his head to the side. "What can I do for you? Is the room to your omega's liking? If you need fresh pillows or bedding, you can just call us. You needn't come out here yourself."

"Ah, no, it's--the room's great," Barry said, before he ran his fingers through his hair. "Did the rest of my triad leave any word with you about where they were going?"

The omega--Barry finally read his name tag, and it said Tommy in curly script--looked puzzled by the question. "No," he said slowly, brows coming together. "I haven't seen them, sir."

"Oh." Barry looked down, swallowing. Shit. They were gone and they hadn't left out the front. 

"Is everything alright, Mr. Allen?" Tommy asked gently.

"Yeah, it's--it's fine," Barry lied. Badly. "They probably just went to get something to eat. I'll just try to call them again while I wait in the room. It's--yeah--everything's fine." He backed up, going back toward the elevator as Tommy watched him, concern written across his face.

Barry got back to the room, toeing of his shoes and getting into the bed. The pillows and sheets smelled like them, a heady scent of cinnamon with underlying spearmint. He gathered a pillow to his chest and leaned back. He'd just watch some TV and wait for them. Yeah. They'd be back.

* * *

They didn't come back.

* * *

On Thursday, Caitlin sent him a text to remind him that she needed her car back. Resigned, Barry checked out of the hotel, avoiding Tommy's eyes as he did so. He drove Caitlin's car to the lab, handing the keys off to her. Apparently what he was feeling was all over his face, because everyone looked worried about him.

"Barry?" Caitlin put her hand on his arm and tried to duck her head into his view, but he just averted his eyes. "Are you okay? Did something happen?"

"Did Snart and Rory do something?" Cisco asked, standing up from the controls to come and stand next to him.

"They left," he said, stepping out from between them and going to sit in a spare spinny chair. "They just left."

"Left... where?" Cisco asked, sounding like he was attempting to be sympathetic but too confused to manage it well. 

"I don't know," he replied, shaking his head as he dropped it into his hands.

"What were you doing with them?" came Harry's whisper-growl of a voice.

Swallowing, Barry wondered if there was a point in hiding it anymore. He'd kept it from them so they couldn't try to talk him out of it. But now that it was over... He heaved a sigh. "I was helping them through Mick's heat."

The stunned silence that fell would have been comical if Barry hadn't felt like vomiting. He looked at their expressions, mixtures of shock and horror and intrigue. He shrugged, hoping that would communicate that, no, he hadn't known why he was doing it at the time. It had felt right. He couldn't explain it.

Cisco seemed slow to accept it. "When you say _helping_..."

Barry gave a slow blink. "Helping. As an alpha."

Cisco's eyelid twitched like something broke in his brain.

"Did you use protection?" Caitlin asked, ever the pragmatic doctor.

He looked down. "It broke."

Harry let out a creative string of expletives before standing and leaving the room entirely.

"Oh, Barry," Caitlin said, coming over to rub her hand across his back soothingly. 

"I have to find them," Barry said, mostly into his hands. "They left the heat hotel while I was fighting those stupid monkeys. Mick's--he said his heat lasts four days. He still needs my help."

"Dude, if they don't want to be found, we probably won't find them," Cisco told him. "You brought us their guns, so it's not like we can track their signatures."

"I doubt Captain Cold will wait very long before setting up another heist," Caitlin added helpfully.

That only kind of made him feel better. On one hand, yeah, there was no way Leonard was going to drop off the face of the earth when there were things to steal. But he also knew that he wasn't about to drag Mick on a job while he was still feeling the effects of his heat. It wasn't safe for him, and Mick had already proved he couldn't perform during anyway.

"True," he said, his shoulders sagging. How long would it take for them to show back up?

"What did you learn while you were with them?" Harry asked as he came into the room, papers in his hands.

"What do you mean?" Barry asked as Harry approached him. "And what's that?"

"I wasn't going to hit you with my hand," Harry said, before he whacked Barry on the head with the rolled up papers like a naughty dog. 

"Hey!" Barry squeaked, zipping away with his arms up. "What gives?"

"Smacking you for your stupidity is easier than explaining why you're stupid." Harry tossed the papers over his shoulder, and they fluttered to the ground as he put his hands on his hips. "Now, what did you learn from them? We're going to try to find them, aren't we?"

Blinking, Barry stared at him, before he looked to Cisco and Caitlin. They seemed just as determined to help. Finally, he nodded and took a breath. "Okay, well, before we went to the heat hotel, Mick suggested we go to a safe house..."

* * *

Together, Barry and Team Flash started the hunt for Leonard and Mick. Firstly, Barry went to the safe house he'd gone to with Leonard. It looked just the way they'd left it, if with a thin layer of dust on things. He tried to find some kind of sign of where they would have gone, but all he found was some canned food in a cabinet, abandoned clothes on the hang bar and in the drawers, and a disused gaming system. 

There wasn't really anything to make this place a home. The only sign that actual people had been there was the unkempt bed and the two toothbrushes in the plastic cup by the sink. For some reason, the sight of those hurt his chest. Not for the first time, he wondered what good it would even do for him to find them.

He had told the team he wanted answers, but he wasn't sure that was all he wanted.

When he left that safe house, he went to the docks and searched all the disused shacks until he located the one Mick had mentioned. It was set up similarly to the one in the processing plant: bed on the floor, hot plate, and so on. This one had an Xbox though. It was a lot chillier in this one though. There was no power. He was happier that he'd brought Mick to a heat room, even if just for a while. He deserved better.

In the corner by an empty dresser, he found rolled up blueprints. With a snort, he laid them out on the table to look at them with the light streaming through the window. He had to smile. He recognized this building. It was the bank Leonard and Mick had robbed about four months ago. They'd gotten away with this one, much to Barry's chagrin.

He ran his fingers over the notes Leonard had written in white paint pen across the paper. One of them was "Flash enters here." He had been right too, because he was too damn smart for his own good. He distinctly remembered Leonard's high laugh as he'd fallen right into the trap he'd laid, having to watch as Leonard and Mick took off with their prize.

He'd been mad then. He'd been _pissed._ But now, he woke up everyday hoping that Leonard and Mick would knock over a gas station, a bank, a hot dog stand, something! He wanted to see them, to talk to them.

After turning the place upside down, he didn't find anything useful, so he headed back to the lab.

Over the next few days, Cisco and Harry compiled a list of possible safe houses in the city, going off the parameters set by the two Barry already knew about. Every time they came up with somewhere new, Barry would race in the direction and check it out. Most places were empty. A couple were heroin dens, which Barry tipped the police off to. On one notable occasion, a location held Mirror Master and Top. Barry frowned as he skidded to a halt in their makeshift living room.

"Flash, what a surprise, just when I--" Scudder was trying to say as he stood up. 

Barry, not in the mood for witty back and forth, just cut him off with a sock to the jaw that immediately rendered him unconscious. He turned and gave Dillon a hard look.

She gulped, tried to an innocent smile, and just held out her wrists.

After dropping them off in the meta wing of Iron Heights, he went to a few more locations until he exhausted the list that Cisco and Harry had made. Defeated, he went back to the lab and shot his friends a helpless look, sagging.

"I think it's best we call it for the day, Allen," Harry told him in the most sympathetic tone he could manage.

"Man, I thought we were onto something with that abandoned fire station," Cisco muttered.

"We'll find them, Barry," Caitlin told him, bringing him a hot chocolate and a few of Cisco's calorie bars. "Eat something, please?"

Barry took them and munched between sips of creamy cocoa, sitting in the corner dejectedly. His team were talking by the monitors, Cisco complaining to Harry that, yes, he knew how facial recognition software worked, and of course he had it constantly tapped into the CCTV systems of the city. Harry grumbled that he could improve the code Cisco was using. Cisco warned that he would remove Harry's hand if he went near the code. Caitlin reminded them that she could sedate them both before they recognized the feel of a hypodermic needle.

Barry didn't hear anything else because his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and groaned at the message from Iris, before he stood as he shoved the rest of the last calorie bar into his mouth. "I gotta go," he told his team, who all turned to face him. "It's the first night of the Christmas movie marathon. I forgot all about it."

"Go," Caitlin told him with a gentle smile. "We'll contact you if we get any new information."

"Yeah, you deserve to rest, dude," Cisco said, brows bowed.

He nodded to them, before he took off. He knocked on the door as he entered the West house, calling out a greeting. Joe and Iris answered from the kitchen, so he went to join them. The smell of popcorn greeted him, as well as the sound of Joe and Iris playfully arguing. 

"Dad, we can't watch It's a Wonderful Life on the first night," Iris insisted from where she was sitting on the counter, a bowl of popcorn on her thighs. It either hadn't been filled all the way or she had already eaten half of it.

"I would agree with you if your counterargument weren't to watch Nightmare Before Christmas," Joe told her from his vigil by the microwave, eyes on the inflating bag inside it.

"It's a classic!" Iris complained around a mouthful of popcorn.

"A classic that we watched at Halloween," he countered, looking up. His eyes landed on Barry, and he smiled. "Hey, Bar."

Barry managed to smile back. He didn't feel it in his whole face though. "Hey, Joe. Hey, Iris."

"Hey," Iris said, setting aside the bowl and hopping down. She nearly slipped in her fuzzy shoes, but he grabbed her arms to steady her. She laughed, before she tugged him into a hug. "Where have you been for the past few days? We missed you at dinner last night." She pulled back, and he tried to force his expression into what it normally looked like.

"Had some stuff to take care of," he said, smiling at her.

"Flash stuff?" she asked, leaning in.

"I don't have any juicy stories for you," he said, sticking out his tongue.

"You can't blame me for trying," she said with a shake of her head.

Before she could attempt to pry further, he asked, "Is Eddie coming tonight?"

"No, he's working," Iris said, sighing and returning to her popcorn. She did bring it within Barry's orbit though. "He said he'd come tomorrow night though."

"I told him he could pick the movie tomorrow. You should have seen the excitement on his face. I think he might be a Hallmark guy," Joe said with distaste plain on his tongue. The microwave beeped, and he pulled out the bag. He opened it, hissing at the steam on his fingers, before he came over to dump the freshly popped corn into the bowl Barry was pulling handfuls out of.

"What what if he is?" Iris asked, elbowing Joe in the ribs.

"I'll uninvite him from the wedding," Joe said plainly.

"You can't uninvite the groom!" Iris exclaimed, swatting playfully at him.

"I can when I'm paying for it." At Iris's gasp, Joe relieved them of the bowl, heading into the living room with Iris on his heels.

Barry followed after them, still working on the mouthful of popcorn that was sure to stick in his teeth. "Where's Wally?" he asked, only spitting a little bit. 

"Taking his sweet time getting down here," Joe said, before he turned and hollered in the direction of the stairs. "Wally!"

"Coming!" Wally called back before he zipped down in a flurry of lightning and stole the bowl of popcorn, plopping down between Joe and Iris. "What're we watching?"

"We're still undecided on that," Joe said, smacking at his hand lightly. 

Barry took a seat in the armchair, finally swallowing the wad of popped corn in his mouth. "What about Home Alone?" he suggested, shrugging when they looked at him. "It _is_ a Christmas movie. I mean, it's either that or Die Hard." 

Iris tossed a handful of popcorn at him. "Home Alone it is."

He tried to enjoy it. He did. Home Alone was one of his favorite seasonal movies, but he'd made a mistake in choosing a movie that featured a pair of criminals that may have had a deeper connection than what was on the surface. They weren't exactly competent criminals, but Barry couldn't help the way his thoughts drifted toward two that were. Again, he wondered where they were, if they were getting through the rest of Mick's heat okay. 

He chewed his lip as he imagined Leonard working that knotting dildo inside of Mick. Was it enough? Would he be satisfied with something artificial? Or was Mick clawing at the covers and biting at the pillows as he got to the edge of release and no further? Would he beg for more? Would he beg for Barry?

He didn't understand why they had left. They'd both seemed so pleased with the heat room. Well, not pleased, exactly, but it had been very convenient for sure. Mick had seemed comfortable, given how he'd gotten naked at the first possible chance. Sure, Leonard had thought Barry would leave them there alone, but they had fun once they got going, right?

Whose idea had it been to leave anyway? Mick rarely did anything without Leonard telling him to even when he wasn't in heat. But when he was in the throes of it, he wouldn't be in the right state of mind to pack up and get out, right? He had wanted churros! Food, sex, and sleep were generally all omegas wanted during their heats. Had Barry provided that? 

No, it must have been Leonard's idea. He had gotten anxious in Barry's absence. Yes, that must have been it. Too many things out of his control for his liking, so he had taken the reins and changed the game. Back to Plan A. Back to what had worked for them before. Barry didn't have a part in his well-oiled machine.

It wasn't fair. It was _stupid._

"Barry?"

He jumped just a little when Iris touched his arm. He blinked at her, then looked at the TV and found the credits rolling. Wally was playing on his phone. Joe had his head tossed back on the couch and the empty bowl in his lap, snoring quietly. He turned his eyes back to Iris, who was giving him a concerned, searching look, a small knit between her brows. "Oh, I zoned out," he told her quietly, not wanting to wake Joe.

"Yeah, I could tell," she said, before she stood, taking his hand. "C'mon. Let's talk." 

She led him upstairs to her old room, which Joe hadn't changed, because he always wanted her to have a place in his home. He sat on her old bed, folding her legs, and patted the space in front of her. "What's got you so distracted, Barry?" she asked, taking his hand when he sat down.

He took in a deep breath and let it out. "I can tell you anything, right?" he asked tentatively, though he knew the answer. 

"Of course you can, Bar," she told him, squeezing his hand.

Iris was his best friend, practically his sister. They had been inseparable since childhood, two alpha terrors that got into so much trouble together. They'd told each other everything. She'd been the first one he'd told about his powers. He'd been the she'd told when she was about to ask Eddie to be her mate.

Even when they shared embarrassing things, however, it was neither to admit something like _this._

He took another deep breath for deep measure. "I--I slept with an omega in heat."

The stunned face she pulled practically had a buffering circle. She blinked. "Oh. Okay." Her brows came together, and she tipped her head. "Uh, who?"

He pulled a face of reluctance. "Well..."

"Is it someone I know?" she asked, leaning toward him.

"Only by reputation," he said, grimacing at the ceiling. He swallowed and looked at her. "Mick Rory."

She squinted, apparently widening her scope of omegas Barry could potentially sleep with. "Mick...?" Then her eyes popped wide. "Heatwave?!"

He winced at her shout, and she covered her mouth immediately. He shrugged at her. "Yeah."

"Heatwave is an omega?"

"That part surprised me too," he said, brows lifted. "Leonard Snart was there too."

"You--" Iris put her hands in her hair, her eyes threatening to roll out of her head. "You spent a heat with Heatwave _and_ Captain Cold?" At least she didn't scream that time, but her voice was reaching a pitch that soon only dogs would be able to hear. "Why? How?"

"Because they needed my help," Barry told her, insistent and a little whiny. He wasn't ashamed of his decision, but he knew this reaction had been coming. "As for the how... Well, the usual way that you would--"

"No, no!" Iris threw her hands in the general direction of his mouth to get him to stop talking. "I don't want to know the specifics."

"You told me things about Eddie I didn't need to know!" Barry protested.

"Eddie isn't a serial killer!" 

Barry felt those words like a blow to the gut. He looked away and pulled his hands behind him so she couldn't take them again. "They don't do that anymore."

"I..." Iris drew in a ragged breath and shifted closer to him so she could hug him around his middle, her face in his shoulder. "I'm sorry. That wasn't fair."

"No, it wasn't," he said softly, feeling weirdly breakable as he turned his face into her hair. Her scent was still as comforting as always. She bumped her nose against his cheek as she pulled away, and he had to smile, even if it didn't reach his eyes.

She gave him a little smile back. "Okay, so you had heat sex with a couple of your rogues," she said, coaxing a slight chuckle out of him. "Did--well, how'd that end? Was it awkward? Have you guys decided to call a truce now that you know each other a whole lot more intimately?"

The smile slowly leaked off of Barry's face, and he looked down. "Not exactly."

In the course of telling her the events of the past few days, they shifted on the bed. He ended up tucked against her with her arm around him. It was easier to talk into her neck instead of watching her face. She petted his hair and listened, only making the smallest of shocked sounds when he told her that he could have very well impregnated Mick. He curled his hand in her sweater as he recounted that hours he'd spent alone in the heat hotel, just waiting for them.

"I just don't know what happened," he said, his eyes stinging and emotion cloying in his throat. "I know it was an... unorthodox situation for us all to be in. But I just don't know what changed in the time that I left to deal with the would-be wicked witch and the time I came back."

"Maybe reality set in," Iris said slowly.

"What do you mean?" Barry asked, lifting his head to look at her.

"I mean, perhaps when you sped off to deal with superhero stuff, they remembered the difference between you and them. They're criminals, Barry." She smoothed his hair back and gave him a sympathetic smile. "They probably thought you were going to throw them in prison once Rory's heat was over."

"I wouldn't do that," he protested, sitting up and shaking his head.

"But you have," she told him, sitting up too. "A few times."

He supposed he couldn't argue with that. He'd even had them put in the meta wing because they were that dangerous, that crafty. "Yeah, but I wouldn't have, not this time."

"They couldn't have known that." Iris folded her legs again and set her hand on Barry's back, rubbing up and down soothingly. "They surround themselves with liars and crooks. They saw their chance to get away, and they took it."

Barry stared down at his lap for a while, before he sniffed. "It was nice." He looked at Iris, and she tipped her head. "Not the sex. Well, not just the sex. But, when we were just talking. You know, teasing each other. It was--it was easy. Comfortable." He felt his chin wibble. "I was happy, and they were scared. That's not how it's supposed to be!" He buried his face in his hands and fell into her as she tugged him into a hug.

As he let out little hiccuping sobs, she gently rocked him, whispering that it would be okay. Everything would be okay. "It's probably better this way," she told him softly, hugging him tight.

He didn't know if that were true or not. All he knew was that he'd failed in his duty as an alpha.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -hides-
> 
> Don't worry. I'm not going to write one million chapters of Barry being sad and broody about this. I'm too impatient for that shit. Leonard and Mick will be back in the next chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Hanukkah, Marry Christmas, and a Blessed Yule to everyone reading this. May whatever you celebrate be wonderful. Or, if you don't celebrate, I hope your day is good too.
> 
> Also, I didn't edit this because I wrote it while just a little drunk. 'Tis the season of day drinking.
> 
> (Don't be like me.)

"Barry, I think I've figured it out!" Cisco announced brightly when Barry came into the lab after work the next day. Cisco looked haggard, in need of a shower and a shave, and like he hadn't slept in forty-eight hours, but he was also hopeful. "It's a bit of a long shot. But, I have created an algorithm that finds all of the shiny things Snart would definitely go for and puts them in a list ranging from Impossible to Steal to Don't Insult My Intelligence. I figure Snart will go for something in the middle, so if we just--"

"It's okay, Cisco," Barry said, wanting him to stop before he started speaking in binary or something. "I'm not going to look for them anymore."

Cisco looked like Barry cancelled Christmas. "But... My algorithm." 

"I'm sure we can use it for something else," Barry assured him, heading into the comms room. "I just don't think it's a good idea to try to find them anymore."

"What changed?" Caitlin asked from her spot at a computer that was doing something very complicated and involved flashing numbers.

"Iris helped me figure out why they left," Barry admitted, looking down and rubbing at the back of his head. "And it all makes sense now." At their puzzled expressions, he told them a condensed version of his and Iris's conversation, and at the end they seemed to get it too. "If they don't want to be found, I should let them keep hiding."

"Even though they were robbing a jewelry store when they all started," Harry interjected, before he rolled his chair out of the way when Cisco whipped a rubber band ball in his direction. "Aren't you concerned that Rory might be carrying your child?"

Barry felt a sickness of unknowing in the pit of his stomach. He swallowed. "It's a possibility, sure, but Leonard had talked about going to a clinic for medicine to remedy that anyway. I'm sure they... took care of it." He looked away, not wanting to think about it.

"Barry," Caitlin said, approaching him and squeezing his arm. "Mick Rory is in his early forties. You said that he has irregular heats too. With those circumstances in mind, it would be very unlikely that he would have been able to get pregnant anyway. That, and he and Snart are very unlikely to give up their lives as career criminals to raise a child."

As she said all this, Barry was nodding. He knew she was being practical. So why didn't her words comfort him?

* * *

Life went on as normally as it could for people facing supervillains on the regular. Barry tried to put his thoughts about Leonard and Mick in a box and in his mind's closet, focusing instead on his training, his cases with the CCPD, and spending time with his family. In the three weeks since he'd seen them, he'd mostly succeeded. Christmas was in three days, and he was determined to have a good one. It even looked like it might snow, which would have been nice, but almost incredibly worrisome for a city that never snowed. 

Cisco and Harry had assured him that Mardin was in lock-up, though, and he wouldn't be doing any weather wizarding this holiday season.

"What movie are you guys watching tonight?" Caitlin asked Barry as they were all pulling on their winter outer clothes to head home for the night.

"The current debate is Elf vs A Christmas Story," he replied as he handed her the gloves she was trying to locate in her pockets.

"Oh, tough choice," Cisco chimed in as he wrapped a needlessly long scarf around his neck before fishing out his hair. "I would definitely go with A Christmas Story if I were choosing."

"I think I would agree," Caitlin said, taking Cisco's arm when he offered it.

"You guys are totally welcome to come over for Christmas movie night, you know," Barry told them as they started toward the doorway. "I can even promise you both your own bowl of popcorn."

"Ooh, tempting," Cisco said as Caitlin chuckled quietly.

They were almost in the hallway when the proximity alarm started going off, lighting up the screens with a view of the entrance to the parking garage. Leonard and Mick stood there, gazing up at the screen. "Knock knock, Flash," Leonard drawled as Mick gave a little wave. 

Cisco muttered something vulgar that Harry would be proud of. 

Barry couldn't breathe, his breath caught in his chest and burning his throat. They were here. They were actually here, right outside. 

"Barry?" Caitlin said tentatively, reaching out to touch his arm.

She didn't manage it thought, because he was gone in a burst of lightning and outside in an instant.

"There you are," Leonard said, looking so casual in his parka and turtleneck. "How are you, Barry?"

"How... How am I?" Barry asked, looking from him and over to Mick. He wasn't dressed in the turnouts like usual. No, he was all bundled up in a sweater and overcoat, looking a little rosy in his cheeks and across his nose. "I'm... fine," he managed eventually, turning back to Leonard.

"Good to hear it," Leonard said, and Barry couldn't tell by his tone if he was sincere or being a shit, but he figured it was probably both. "Look, we're here because we understand that taking off on you was kind of a shitty thing to do, and we want you to know that we didn't do it because we dislike you, Barry."

"You just weren't sure if I was going to end up taking you to jail to not," Barry finished for him. "Yeah, I know. I understand."

"What? No, that's not it at all," Leonard told him with an incredulous expression.

"Huh?" Barry asked, mouth dropping open.

"We don't want you getting attached, kid," Mick explained like it should have been obvious.

"Right." Leonard shrugged. "That's it exactly."

"I don't understand." Barry licked his lips a couple times, feeling them starting to chap. "It was just--just a heat. I wasn't going to... I'm not..."

"Nothing is ever 'just' with you, Barry," Leonard told him, sounding almost sympathetic for once. "You put your whole heart and soul into everything you do. Mix that with all the chemical reactions in your brain that happen when you mate with an omega, well... You were pretty doomed to fall for us."

Barry wanted to argue, wanted to say he had more control of himself than that. But he couldn't, because every time he thought about what they'd shared, how they'd laughed and touched, all he could think was how complete he felt. "Well," he said slowly. "If that's the case, why are you here now? Why not just stay gone?"

"Because it's not fair," Leonard said simply. "We are planning on leaving the city. Not sure where to, but we'll meet up with my sister and go settle down somewhere else. We just wanted to tell you so you didn't have to wonder what happened to us. We're going to be fine. And we're glad you're fine too."

"It was sweet what you did," Mick added with a soft sigh, his breath turning into a white puff in front of his face. "More than we deserve, for sure."

"Yeah, you've always been good to us, Barry, as the Flash and as a heat mate. We... appreciate it." Leonard looked a little pained saying all that, like gratitude went against his moral code.

Swallowing actually hurt after hearing that. Barry nodded and tried to sniff as softly as he could. He could blame it on the cold. He just had a runny nose. Sure. He had never been good at goodbyes, had always put up a brave face even as it hurt him so terribly inside. But he heard Iris's voice in his head, telling him, "Maybe it's better this way." It probably was. He had developed feelings for Leonard and Mick, and he would never be able to face them again without those feelings getting in the way. So yeah, maybe it was better that they were moving out of the city and settling down--

He froze as he came to a realization. "Wait," he said, putting up a finger. "You--Why are you settling down? That implies that you're not going to be thieving anymore." He looked between them as they sent each other glances. "Why not? You can just set up shop somewhere else and keep on doing crime. What's changed? Why are you stopping?"

"Barry..." Leonard began, looking like he was gearing up for some long winded explanation.

"I'm pregnant," Mick said instead, then shrugged as Leonard put his hand over his face. "I'm keeping it."

Barry rocked back on his heels like those words were a weight thrown his way, his air seizing in his lungs and freezing them solid. "You..." He flicked his eyes between them, the volume of his thoughts increasing to screams. "You didn't go to the clinic."

"We were going to," Mick told him, putting his hands in the pockets of his coat.

Leonard reached out and grasped Mick's forearm lightly. "But it didn't happen, so here we are."

"So, you're just going to leave?" Barry asked through something like the mix of a gasp and a sob. "You're carrying my baby."

" _My_ baby," Mick snapped, face going hard.

Swallowing, Barry tried to control his breathing, his thinking, his everything. He indicated to himself and then the two of them. "Our--our baby?"

"Barry," Leonard tried to say.

"Why not?" Barry insisted, moving toward them. "You've already decided to give up your lives as criminals. Why can't you stay here? I can help you. I can get you anything you need."

Taking in a deep breath, Leonard looked at the sky for a moment like he would be praying for sincerity if he were the type to do such a thing. Next to him, Mick pulled his hand out of his pocket and took Leonard's gloved hand, squeezing it with a soft squeak of leather. Absurdly, Barry wanted to take their free hands so they'd make a complete triangle. He didn't, but the bone deep yearning was there.

"Okay, hypothetically, if we were to stay, how were you thinking you would help us? Planning on hiding us away in some hotel until Mick gives birth? We have warrants. What about doctors? What about taking care of the kid after Mick pops it out? You're not thinking, Barry. You're just--" Leonard waved with his spare hand, most flustered than Barry had ever seen him. "You're just making promises that you don't know that you can keep."

"We'll figure it out!" Barry practically shouted. "I don't care if it sounds idealist, but I believe we can make it work. I'm the Flash. I've time-traveled. I can solve this problem too!"

The amazement on their faces was priceless.

"You've... time-traveled?" Leonard asked, slowly like he was testing the words.

"Neat," Mick said, grinning ear-to-ear.

Barry didn't exactly know why, but he just started laughing, all the tension wooshing out of his body in an instant. "Yeah. Yeah, I've time-traveled. It was pretty nuts. I wouldn't suggest it though. Time doesn't like to be messed with."

Leonard actually smiled as Mick chuckled next to him, before he rubbed the expression off his face. "I just. Fuck, Barry. Okay." He turned to Mick, who lifted his brows at him. "We had a plan. Should we throw it away and stay?"

Mick let out a soft grunt, turning his eyes to Barry and looking at him for a long minute. Then he just shrugged. "I like this city."

With his heart hurting so much and so good that he actually put a hand to his chest and gripped his coat, Barry let out a soft laugh and prayed he wouldn't start to cry. They were staying. They were actually staying! It was a step in the right direction. One problem solved in a series of issues that needed to be addressed. He--well, they would just take it one day at a time.

"Alright, Barry," Leonard said with a quiet sigh. "Then I guess we'll start with a hotel for now."

"You don't have to stay at a hotel!" Barry said immediately, pressing further into their space. "You can come home with me."

There was a brief second where Barry thought he'd accidentally accessed his powers, because time seemed to stop as they stared at him in shock. But then Mick just burst out laughing, a uproarious sound that was as violent as it was lovely. Leonard laughed too, quieter as he dropped his face into his hand.

"What?" Barry didn't get the joke. Wasn't his suggestion good?

"Oh, Barry," Leonard said, shaking his head. He smacked his hand on Barry's shoulder, lips twisting into a teasing smile. "You sweet, kind, romantic, tall stack of stupid. That's the worst idea you'd ever had. No, we're not going home with you."

"Why not?"Barry tried to concentrate on the conversation and not the comforting weight of Leonard's hand.

"A variety of reasons. Putting aside all of logistics of shoving three people into a space meant for one person, let's consider the facts that us, two wanted criminals, would be living in the space of someone who 1) works for the cops, 2) has a foster father who is a cop, and 3) is the fucking Flash." Leonard rolled his eyes. "You can imagine the odds of us being discovered by your do-gooder friends and family."

"Not something I'd put money on working out," Mick added.

"Nor would I, Mick." Leonard squeezed Barry's shoulder then dropped his hand. "Nor would I."

Barry tried to think of a reason why it would be logical for them to come to his place, no really, and his mouth worked with little more than squeaks coming out. "Well, I..." He pulled his lips to the side. "Shit." He ran his fingers over his mouth for a minute. "Okay, well, a hotel isn't safe either. You could get recognized if you're in a public place like that for too long." Not to mention, any hotel worth anything would have security cameras.

"Alright, point, so what's the alternative?" Leonard asked with a tip of his head.

"I don't want to go back to one of the safe houses," Mick said, brow scrunching.

"You won't have to," Barry told him, daring to reach out and touch his sleeve. Mick looked down at his hand, and, after a moment, grabbed it with his free one. Barry could have started to sing. "We'll figure something out," he said, eyebrows knitting together as he tried to come up with some options. Everything he was coming up with, such as renting an apartment for them or stashing them in a mobile home, involved giving their names to a landlord or coming up with fake identities for them.

None of the options were available immediately, no matter what they did. 

"They can stay here," came Cisco's voice over the intercom.

Barry was happy he wasn't the only one that jumped in surprise. He turned his head and found the camera that peered right where they were standing. For some reason, he hadn't even thought that Cisco and Caitlin might be watching them and listening to their conversation. (Even if they'd done a similar thing before.)

"This place is secure," Cisco added, a bit less confident sounding now. "Plenty of rooms to choose from. Spacious. There's... plumbing."

"It comes with a built in doctor too," Caitlin added hurriedly. She cleared her throat. "I do have multiple degrees in biology, and one of them happens to focus on omegas."

"That--" Barry sucked in a breath of frigid air. "That's perfect." He turned to look at Leonard and Mick again, biting his lip. "STAR Labs is a blind spot to law enforcement. They never come here."

"Probably because it explodes occasionally," Leonard said with a squint at the camera.

Barry huffed a laugh. "Come in. It's cold out here."

Cisco and Caitlin were waiting for them in the entryway, right outside the elevator, looking awkward as all hell. "So, hi, welcome to STAR Labs," Cisco said with an uncomfortable smile that was creeping farther across his face like fungi. "Please don't steal anything."

"No promises," Leonard said mildly, stepping away from them to start down the hall. "I'm sure you have lots of fun little things to put my fingers all over." He wiggled said fingers as he passed by Cisco.

"Nothing fun here! This is a no fun zone!" Cisco cried, chasing after him down the hallway toward the comms room.

"Um." Barry realized he was still holding Mick's hand and then immediately came to the conclusion he didn't want to let go. Mick didn't seem like he was in too much of a hurry either. "Are you hungry?"

"Basically always," Mick gruffed back at him with a crooked smile. "Even before you knocked me up."

And now Barry's face was on fire. He liked how direct Mick was, even if it sometimes meant he was embarrassed beyond all reason. "We have food," Barry said, hoping they actually did have things beyond Cisco's calorie bars and Jello cups. "I can always go get you something too."

"Don't touch that!" Cisco shrieked from down the hall.

"I should..." Caitlin pointed that way, before she turned and hurried toward the sound of Cisco having a meltdown. 

"Yeah, we should too." Barry looked at Mick, who nodded.

"Leonard might make your friend cry."

"Can't have that." He and Mick started walking towards the comms room, hand in hand, which should have been weird but somehow wasn't. 

"Is this a grenade?" came Leonard's delighted voice as they walked.

"If I say it's a paper weight will you put it down so you don't blow us up?"

"Oh dear," Barry hissed, letting go of Mick's hand to zip into the room and take what Leonard was holding.

"Aw," Leonard complained lightly.

"I'm reconsidering recent choices already," Cisco said, pulling on his own hair and sounding like he was close to hyperventilating.

"Maybe put all live munitions in a safer place?" Barry suggested, holding out the grenade for Cisco to take.

"I wanna see all the weapons," Mick announced as he walked into the room, a gleeful expression on his face. 

"Oh, me too," Leonard said. "Is my gun in that room?"

"Is mine?" Mick looked a bit too excited.

"Maybe no ogling the weapons?" Barry suggested, putting up his hands. "We do have cable and Netflix though, if you guys have to look at something."

"Do you have HBO? I'm really behind on Game of Thrones," Mick said with a squint.

"I can bring my box sets," Cisco said, inching toward the doorway with the grenade in his hands. 

"Sweet." Mick flashed him a grin.

It was that moment that moment when Harry walked into the room and went still upon seeing Mick and Leonard. "What... What is happening here?" He slowly turned huge eye toward Barry. "What did you do?"

Barry made a little noise and looked at Cisco, who tried to shrink in on himself will still holding the grenade. "Uh," Cisco said, attempting a smile. "Actually, this was pretty much all my idea."

"What was all your idea?" Harry growled at him.

"For Snart--uh--Leonard and Mick to live here, because Mick is a pregnant and Barry wants them close by," Cisco told him in a rush. He shriveled even further and sent a desperate look at the doorway. "I'm gonna put this up now, bye!" He skittered away like a frightened deer, disappearing into the hallway.

"What--" Harry gritted his teeth, sent a look at the rest of them, then tore off after Cisco. "Ramon! I already live here!"

"I already love this place," Mick said.

"So I'll just go find us a room, shall I?" Leonard started toward the doorway, detouring by Barry and patting his arm. He headed out into the hallway, humming a jaunty little tune.

"So," Mick piped up, lifting a brow at Barry. "Food?"

"Yeah, yes," Barry said, hurrying into a side room that served as their kitchen to look through the fridge. There were plenty of Jello cups. There was also lunch meat and cheese, so he pulled those out and opened the pantry in hopes of finding bread.

"So, Mick..." He heard Caitlin say, her voice drifting in from the other room.

"Yeah?" Mick replied gruffly.

"How did you find out you were pregnant?"

Barry paused in his search, turning his ear more toward their conversation.

"Pissed in a cup and dipped a stick in it."

"Oh." To Caitlin's credit, she didn't seem bothered by how crass Mick was by nature. "Do you mind if I take a bit of blood and test your hCG levels?"

"Why? You think I'm lying about this?" Mick barked at her. "The fuck would the point be?"

"No!" she was quick to say. "I don't think you're lying."

"Are you trying to get Barry off the hook or something?"

"No, I just--the test is standard for all pregnancies--"

Barry had never made a sandwich so fast in his life. He didn't even put the chips he found on the plate, just brought the whole family sized share bag with him when he zipped back into the room. "Here," he said, offering Mick the plate as he got between him and Caitlin. 

Mick narrowed his eyes at him but took the plate and the bag anyway, going to sit down in the chair Barry always used to sulk. He tore open the bag and started munching away, apparently having decided to ignore them until his belly was full. Barry swiveled slowly around to Caitlin and mouthed to her, "What the hell?"

Caitlin threw up her hands and mouthed back, "I'm trying to help!"

"Stop it!" he mouthed in return, and she crossed her arms and went toward the kitchen.

Round the comms console, Barry grabbed a rolling chair and wheeled it over to sit by Mick. "She doesn't think you're lying," he told him, looking mostly at his hands as he said it. "She's a doctor. She likes to run tests."

Mick let out a grunt around his sandwich. "Whatever, I know I got a bun in the oven. I don't need any tests."

Leaning back in the chair, Barry looked over at Mick. He wanted to reached over and touch him, but he was smart enough not to put his hand near a predator while they were eating. "The tests aren't just to confirm your pregnancy. They're to check your hormone levels and to make sure everything's okay. Caitlin will be able to figure out what medication and diet are best for you." He tipped his head. "Best for the baby too."

Peering down at his plate, Mick's hand moved into his pocket and shifted over his stomach. It was impossible to miss, but Barry wasn't going to say anything about it. "Fine," Mick finally said, lifting his eyes. "She can do her stupid tests."

Grinning at him, Barry stood up. "What do you want to drink? You need to be hydrated if you're going to give blood."

"Well," Mick sighed, looking up at him. "I'd normally say beer..."

With a laugh, Barry did reach out and touch him then, fingertips ghosting over Mick's shoulder. "How about one of Cisco's Gatorades?" 

"Got red?" Mick asked, flashing his teeth in a smile.

"One fruit punch, coming right up." Barry zipped into the kitchen when Caitlin was standing by the fridge, staring into it like Barry had found himself doing in the middle of the night several times. He approached and offered her a smile. "He'll do the tests."

"I heard," she said, pulling out a red Gatorade and handing it over. She still didn't look at him. "I really am trying to help."

"I know," he said as he took the drink. "This is going to be an adjustment for all of us. Thank you for trying."

She shrugged a shoulder. "I'll try harder."

"Thanks." He zipped back into the comms room and held the Gatorade out to Mick. "Here."

"Thanks." Mick took it, twisted off the cap and had a few swallows of it.

Barry didn't watch his neck, he didn't... too obviously. "So, uh, all we really have in the Labs as far as beds are cots, but I'll get a bed for you guys tomorrow," he said, looking down and fiddling with the cuff of his sleeve. "What else do you want?"

"Can you afford to pamper us like this?"

Barry turned his eyes up and found Mick peering at him hard. He made him uncomfortable, but he forced himself to keep his eyes forward. "I--well, my salary at the CCPD isn't--I'm not exactly wealthy by any means, but I can afford to get you guys a bed and stuff to entertain yourselves with." He put on a brave face as Mick continued to stare at him like he just couldn't quite figure him out.

"You don't have to like..." Mick squinted at him. "...prove you're a good person, you know? We're already aware."

"I'm not trying to prove anything to you," Barry said, though he wasn't sure if that was entirely the truth. "I'm just--you guys need things--"

"We can provide for ourselves just fine," Mick huffed at him, a smile tugging at the side of his mouth. "God, you're such an _alpha_ , even under all that sweetness and heroic shit."

Barry was only vaguely insulted. Mostly he was stuck on the fact that Mick called him sweet. "Well, it _is_ my responsibility to make sure you, Leonard and the baby have everything required that you're happy and healthy, you know?"

Mick snorted. "Shut up before I puke on you. Morning sickness ain't even started yet."

Smiling, Barry nodded and laid his hand on Mick's shoulder. "I should go see if Leonard if actually picking a room or if he's found the weapons room."

"Probably both."

Pulling his bottom lip through his teeth, Barry leaned down into Mick's space. "Is it... okay if I kiss you?"

"Yeah, better do it now before I start thinking about your friend poking with me with needles and puke for real." Mick stretched out his neck, getting closer.

Closing the distance between them, Barry kissed him softly, a slow caress of lips that had very little of the heat-driven need that had them mashing their mouths together before. It was more a tease, a promise that Barry would willingly and happily kiss him again even if there was no sex to follow.

He hadn't actually thought about more sex in the future, and now he needed to leave before that was the only thing he could think about. He zoomed through the halls, dropping by Harry's lab to make sure Cisco was still alive. He and Harry were just fine, though they were throwing things at each other across the space. Soft things, mostly, so Barry wasn't too worried about STAR Labs becoming a crater. He moved on, going to the weapons room first and finding it intact with the cold and heat guns still in their trunks. 

He found Leonard sitting on a cot with his back to the door in a room that was so far removed from the rest of the facility that Barry had never actually been in it before. He was talking on a phone, his voice low and calm. "I know, but we decided it was best that we stay. Yeah, you can come and visit us. It's not like this place has any security, so you can just walk right in." He laughed at the voice on the other end. "Right? But we do feel safe. It's... Yeah. Mm. You better. Kid's gonna need its Auntie Lisa. Yes, I am gonna call you that and you can't stop me. You better find some cute baby clothes too." He let out a sigh. "Okay. See ya, sis."

When Leonard swiped his thumb across the face of his phone and shoved it in his pocket, he said without looking over his shoulder, "Come to make sure I was being a good boy, Barry?"

"That's probably a losing battle, don't you think? Barry replied, stepping into the room and assessing it. Decently sized. There was a bathroom with a shower across the hall. It was a straight walk, if a long one, from anywhere with food, but they could set up a kitchen and dining room in the room next door. Yeah, these few rooms could serve as a pretty good apartment if a little work was done on them. 

"I can be as good as I want to be," Leonard told him, turning toward him then.

"I'll believe it when I see it." Barry stopped next to the cot Leonard was sitting on. "Thanks, by the way."

"For what?"

"For deciding to stay." He sat down on the cot too.

"Wasn't my choice."

"Maybe not, but you left it up to Mick, even though you probably could have told him it was best to leave, and he would have followed you."

Leonard set his jaw and shook his head. "I don't make all of his decisions. He just follows my lead when it comes to business." He swallowed and looked down, then turned away again. "I took him to a clinic, you know? He was the one that decided last minute that he wanted to keep the kid."

"And you didn't want him to," Barry surmised slowly.

"Well, no, because I know it's not gonna be easy bringing a kid into--" He waved his hand around. "All of this. Kids are messy and complicated. They get sick. They can't communicate what the want properly, especially when what they want changes so easily." He turned to look at Barry. "I know, because I raised my sister. She was a little shit."

Barry tried not to laugh, but he failed.

"What I'm saying is, me and Mick... We're not parent material. Even if the kid is a perfect angel, it's never going to have an easy life because of who we are. I thought Mick and I were on the same page, but he really wants this kid. And I want him to be happy. I also have no right to tell him what to do with his body. So, I guess we're gonna be dads now." He gave a shrug and leaned back on his hand. "All of us."

"We'll figure it out," Barry told him.

"No matter how many time you tell me that, I'm not going to believe it until it happens." Leonard let his hand slide out from under him, flopping back on the cot with a grunt. "Where's Mick now?"

"Caitlin's running some tests."

"Oh, I can only imagine how well that went over. He hates doctors." Leonard draped his arm over his face. At Barry's curiosity-laden silence, he continued. "He got poked and prodded a lot when he was a kid. Doctors were always real curious about his high testosterone levels, whether or not he'd ever go into heat, and if he'd be able to carry a child. Guess we know now."

"Yeah..." Barry felt worry creep up his spine.

Leonard moved his arm and looked at him. "He'll be devastated if he loses it. I'll never get my partner back."

"He won't lose it," he said insistently, shaking his head. "We'll take care of him here. STAR Labs is the best place he could be."

"I know," Leonard said, his hand dropping near Barry's. "It's part of the reason I agreed so readily."

Fighting the urge to grasp that hand and squeeze it tight, Barry swallowed and tilted his head. "What's the rest of the reason?"

"I know you'll do everything you can for him." A wry smile twisted Leonard's lips, making him look just as punchable as he was kissable. "You can't really help it."

"You say it like it's a bad thing," Barry said with a roll of his eyes, no heat in his words because he was too distracted by the notion of leaning down and kissing Leonard now. Would the guy let him?

"Not bad," Leonard murmured, his fingers walking up Barry's wrist and along his forearm. "But definitely annoying. You gonna make our kid a Boy Scout just like you?"

With a snort, Barry brought his hand over, laying it across the back of Leonard's. "If I have anything to say about it, yeah. I'll leave the lessons in pick-pocketing to you."

Leonard let out a huff of a laugh. "Pick-pocketing comes around age seven. Lock-picking comes long before that."

"Oh no." Barry was betrayed by his own laughter.

"What? It's an excellent way to refine a youngster's motor skills."

"Please stop." This shouldn't have been so funny. But the idea of Leonard with a toddler in his lap, teaching them how to work a pair of picks into a lock was just too absurd not to make him laugh.

"Mm, make me, Flash," Leonard purred, tugging at his sleeve.

Barry pressed his lips together, smothering his laughter as he looked down at Leonard. "I don't think I can make you do anything," he said, brow jumping up on his forehead even as he leaned over Leonard. "But I'd like to kiss you, if you'd let me."

Leonard peered up at him, a strange expression on his face like he'd never been asked before. He reached up with his free hand and pulled Barry down the rest of the way. His lips were chapped but not unpleasant as they slid against Barry's, another kiss that lacked any real intent beyond just the connection in provided. Barry realized then that they hadn't actually kissed before. He'd done a lot of devouring Mick's mouth, sure, but somehow in the middle of all that sex, he hadn't kissed Leonard. They'd barely even touched. They'd have to fix that.

He pulled away, bumping his nose against Leonard's and grinning at the chuckle it pulled from him. "Egyptian cotton sheets and a goose down blanket, right?"

"Hm?"

"That's what you said you had already."

"Ah, right, when you were threatening us with prison blankets. I remember. What about them?"

"What brand? I'm getting you a bed tomorrow. I might as well get you those too. A TV too, so you guys can watch Cisco's Game of Thrones DVDs. I can also get--"

"Barry," Leonard interrupted, a manic grin taking over his face. "You plan on going shopping for us?" He lifted his brows. "On Christmas Eve?"

Barry's face fell as horror set in. "Oh fuck."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -giggles- Poor Barry. His heart's in the right place.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guuuuys. Sorry for going so long without updating. I've been training for my new job, and it's eaten up all my time. But here you go, a chapter that's longer than the others.

Shopping on Christmas Eve was the worst, even for the Flash. He managed to get Cisco to go with him, mostly by needling him but a little by begging. Cisco had relented eventually, saying he should probably get Dante another gift, if only so he could give the most gifts and be better than his brother. "That's the Christmas spirit," Barry had said, patting his friend on the back. 

"So what all do you need?" Cisco asked as they piled into a Star Labs van at around 10am on Christmas Eve.

"Well, a bed for sure, one big enough for two," Barry began, pulling out his list.

"Or three." Cisco's grin was threatening to eat his whole face.

Barry felt his ears burn. "We'll just... California King should be big enough." He rubbed his cheek as Cisco laughed. "They need a TV, a TV stand, basically everything that makes a room a room." 

"Huh, well, you know a place where you can get all of that?"

"No, where?"

Cisco's grin turned devious. "IKEA."

* * *

"Oh, I have so many regrets in my life," Cisco said with a groan as they entered the massive IKEA building. "But this in my greatest."

Wincing, Barry looked around at the swarm of people moving with no rhyme or reason before them, some yelling at cashiers, some yelling at each other, and other looking like they wanted their souls to evacuate their mortal coils. "I'm... so sorry," he told his friend, giving him his most apologetic face.

Cisco just sighed and shook his head. "It's cool. I don't have any plans for the next eight to ten hours." He flashed a smile. "Let's go shopping and try not to get murdered."

"Always a solid plan," Barry said, following after him toward the escalator that would take them to the top floor and the beginning of their journey.

"So, you're gonna be a dad." Cisco apparently wanted to waste no time to get into that conversation. 

"Yeah. I'm sure it'll feel real eventually," Barry said, more focused on worrying about what color bedding Leonard would like. Why hadn't he asked? Blue? Grey? What about Mick? How many blankets would they need? A thought came flying out of left field at him, and he groaned. "Should I buy a crib? Oh god."

"Slow your roll, buddy," Cisco said, putting a hand on his arm and squeezing. "The kid's not even the size of a pea yet. You've got time."

"Yeah," Barry agreed with a shaky sigh. "I'm just not sure how to navigate this. I mean..."

"You totally failed to predict the consequences of spontaneously spending a heat with an omega you barely know?" Cisco suggested lightly, shooting him a smile. "Shocking."

"Ow," Barry replied, putting his hand on his chest. "That hurts, Cisco."

"More or less than hitting you with rolled up papers?" Cisco narrowed his eyes at him, still smiling.

"About the same." He walked on as Cisco sputtered indignantly, not about to give him a point in whatever Abuse Barry Allen game he and Harry were playing. 

They wandered through the kitchen stuff, commenting on various set ups and discussing how difficult it would be to put in a little kitchen for Leonard and Mick. Not very, according to Cisco, but Barry had to put his foot down when it came to the more creative plumbing ideas he had. There was no reason to put in a small reactor powerful enough to power a city, no matter how much Cisco wanted to test an invention.

They decided on a white marble with blue-black veining kitchen counter style and stainless steel appliances. Barry took the cards for all the items, noting they could be delivered a few days after Christmas. That was soon enough for the non-essential stuff.

Next was the bathroom set ups. There wasn't much that they needed from here. The bathroom that was next to the room Leonard and Mick were in was inside a locker room, and it had been used by the STAR Labs staff during the early days of the particle accelerator construction. It had toilets and showers, but it just needed a tub. Barry wanted to give Mick something to relax in if his feet were hurting. It would have to be big so Leonard could join him if he wanted. Maybe bigger so Barry could too...

"Dude," Cisco complained as Barry stared intently at a nice, large jacuzzi tub.

"Don't judge me," Barry said, snatching the card anyway.

"Oh, I'm judging you so hard," Cisco told him, jogging to catch up as Barry walked quickly to the next section. 

Finally they had reached the bedroom stuff, and Barry tried not to feel overwhelmed as he looked at all the bed frames. A four poster bed was surely too much. But what kind of headboard should he go for? Would Mick and Leonard care? Their mattresses had been on the ground at all their safe houses, right? He turned to Cisco, who looked just as out of place. "Other than this, how'd your Christmas shopping go?"

"I did all of it online," Cisco replied honestly, rubbing a sample sheet through his fingertips. "Never really found the time to go out and shop."

"I understand that." Barry sighed, thinking about all the business he'd given Amazon and Ebay in the past two months. "What'd you get for Harry? Is it going to annoy him."

"Oh, so much," Cisco said, putting his hands back in his pockets. "But he's still going to love it, even if he grumbles about it."

Barry moved over to join him by the sheets, picking up a set with a ridiculous thread count. Well, they did say Egyptian cotton, so they were good right? He was a Jersey knit kind of guy, had been since he was a kid, and he was almost afraid to admit it. "What'd you get Caitlin?" he asked as he compared a set of grey to a set of deep blue. The blue reminded him of Leonard's parka. Seeing him naked and pale against it... Well, blue was best, yeah.

"Well, first I got her some lesser known publications from a biologist that she really admires--"

"Aw!"

"I know, right? I'm so thoughtful. The problem is, though, who wants science-y stuff for Christmas? So I also got her some earrings. They're pearl."

"That's sweet of you, Cisco," Barry told him, and he meant it. "She'll love them, I'm sure."

"I hope so. What did you get for her? Y'know, so we can compare notes and I can stop feeling so anxious about the whole thing, because I feel so anxious all of the sudden. Why do I feel so anxious?" Cisco sucked in a breath after letting that all out in one go, his eyes wide.

Blinking at him, Barry replied, "I got her a fountain pen and ink set, since she likes to take all her notes like that."

"Ohmigod, that's such a good idea. Why didn't I think of that?" Cisco buried his face in his hands. "I'm such a bad friend."

"You're an amazing friend," Barry assured him, patting him on the shoulder. "Just wait until you see what she got for you." He spotted a simple, but not cheap bed frame, all wood with a elegant but strong headboard. He grabbed the card for it, as well as the card for appropriately sized mattress and box spring.

"Wait. You know what she got me?" Cisco demanded after a while, and Barry just grinned at him. "Barry, why would you do this to me!"

"Because you're my friend, and I love you." Barry laughed when Cisco swatted at him, dancing away to look at the comforters and blankets. 

He nearly got bowled over by two women fighting over the bedding set. He and Cisco crowded back against some headboards, not wanting to get into that. There was yelling, hair-pulling and biting. At the first sight of blood, two large men in blue jumpsuits came and separated them, practically carrying them of the floor and through some double doors Barry handed noticed before.

"IKEA has a security team," Cisco observed, a little breathless.

"Apparently so," Barry agreed.

Another woman came and snatched the dropped bedding set, tearing away like she had meta-human speed herself.

Wary, Barry approached the bedding displays again, keeping an eye out for anyone out for blood.

He didn't find any goosedown blankets, unfortunately, because he'd probably have to find that at a specialty shop. But he did find a nice plush comforter that was bigger than it had any right to be. It was dark grey and so, so soft. As a plus, he picked up a microfiber blanket that was a few shades lighter. He grabbed some pillows and pillowcases and quickly found he didn't have enough hands.

Cisco went to get a basket for his growing hoard. 

"Are you going to be staying the night in the Labs now?" Cisco asked as they rounded a corner into a showcase room that was rugs as far as the eye could see. 

Barry hadn't really thought about it. He worried at his lip for a second, got distracted by what only could be a tub of rabbit skins, then looked back to Cisco. "I might--I don't know. I would like to stay the night, but it's not just up to me. We haven't really discussed what I am to them yet." Leonard had called him their heat mate, which had made him feel all warm and gooey inside. Beyond that, he didn't know what he was to them.

He wanted to be their provider, and he was dead set on doing that. But, being a heat mate was a long ways away from being a _mate._ It was obvious that they were mated, inseparable for who knows how long. Barry wanted to be part of the union, for sure, as he was the father of the child Mick would bear, but... Cisco was right. He didn't really knew them. He knew their rap sheets. He knew how to fight them. He knew all the shiny, pretty things they liked. But, he didn't know them.

He'd have to ask. After all, they knew his secret identity, but he hadn't the foggiest who they were before they became Captain Cold and Heatwave.

Cisco patted his shoulder. "You've got time. They're not going anywhere."

"Yeah," Barry agreed, hoping they didn't get skittish and take off in the middle of the night again.

After walking through the rest of the show rooms and the warehouse area, Barry and Cisco were finally done. Barry had found enough stuff for Leonard and Mick to start to turn their room into something more homey and something less jail cell. Cisco had found something for Dante, and he was ranting on how this would make him the best gift-giver this Christmas. No contest. Nuh-uh!

Snorting, Barry let him babble, glancing around as they stood in line with Barry's full cart and Cisco's one item. As his eyes roamed, he noticed a stack of Christmas-themed mugs and wandered a few steps to look at them. They ranged from barely-even-Christmas to complete-and-total-abominations. Barry picked up one of the subtler ones and went back to the cart.

Cisco spied it and hummed. "Alright, I see what you did there. You don't think a bed and all this is enough though?"

"Christmas isn't about what you need. It's about the things people see that remind them of you, right?" Barry asked, looking down at the mug. "I think he'll like it."

"What about Mick?"

Shrugging, Barry pushed his cart forward as the person in front of them shuffled forward. "I'll find something."

Fifteen minutes later at the register when Barry was about to pay a ridiculous amount of money, he spotted something and grabbed it. "What about this?" he asked, showing it to Cisco.

"Oh, oh my god, that's perfect," Cisco said with a snort. "He'll love it."

Beaming, Barry handed the little item over to the tired looking cashier to added to his bill.

* * *

"Christ, Barry, what all did you buy?" Leonard asked them when they piled out of the van. He leaned around to look at the back of it, where the doors were open and things were hanging out while only being securely by some bungee cord.

"This isn't even half of what he bought," Cisco answered for him as he rounded the van to the back.

When Leonard lifted a brow at him, Barry shuffled in spot for a moment. "This--This is just what he could take home today. It's just a bed, mattress, bedding, etc. Everything else will be delivered later." He turned started over to where they kept the dollies so they could start bring stuff inside.

"And what is everything else?" Leonard asked, taking a dolly for himself without being prompted, and they walked back toward the van. When Barry told him, his face split into a sly grin. "Why, Barry, are you sitting on some kind of nest egg you've decided to crack open for us?"

"I--uh--no. I just have good credit." Barry walked a little faster, pretending not to notice that surprise the colored Leonard's features. When caught up to him and Cisco, his face was placid again. Barry hoped that Leonard wouldn't question his finances too. He wanted to--needed to do this. So what if it would take a while to pay off? If he wanted, he could just work overtime. Singh would be delighted.

Thankfully, there were no questions as they loaded everything up and started to haul it into the Labs. Once they were inside though, Cisco broke the silence. "Uh, hey, Leonard," he began, remote controlling the automated moved that was carrying the mattress, box spring and heavier parts of the bed. "What were you doing out in the car park? Waiting for us?"

"Smoking," Leonard answers easily, steering his dolly of short boards and pillows next to Barry's of longer boards and pillows.

"You smoke?" Barry asked, putting on the same face as Cisco as he turned around curiously.

"Rarely." Leonard dug into his pocket and pulled out an electronic cigarette. "Only when I want to be alone and really think."

"What about?" Cisco asked, looking ahead again while obviously focusing on the conversation. 

"Things." Leonard didn't seem to want to exaggerate.

"Okay," Cisco said slowly.

The silence that followed was so deafening that Barry decided to break it with, "They didn't have any goose down blankets." He sent an apologetic face Leonard's way. "I hope you like what I got you though."

Leonard's face did a journey like he was trying to decide whether to tease Barry or pinch his cheek for being adorable. He settled for snorting out a laugh and giving him a bit of a smile. "I'm sure we'll survive, Barry."

"But I want you to like it," Barry said, his voice dropping a little as his chest tightened.

Leonard stopped then, setting his dolly upright, and reached over to stop Barry too. As Barry was trying to ask what was up, Leonard backed him into the wall and kissed him. Shock was the mildest explanation for what shot through his body at the contact. Leonard... Leonard didn't play fair, pressing close and slotting their bodies together like they were split from the same mold. Barry let out a whimper, tipping his head so his lips slid so effortlessly against Leonard's. 

"I like it, Barry," Leonard murmured mostly into his mouth, and Barry had already forgotten what they were talking about. "You don't need to try so hard."

Opening his eyes, Barry peered into Leonard's eyes--god, what color were they? He couldn't tell. Hazel or blue or green with flecks of gold and ice. Whatever they were, they were absolutely beautiful. He swallowed before dragging in a breath. "I'm not trying too hard. I'm doing what I should be doing," he said, and he believed it deep where it was etched on his soul. If he could care for Leonard and Mick, why not throw himself into it? It was what they deserved.

"Oh, Barry," Leonard whispered, leaning their foreheads together. "Just don't run yourself down into nothing, alright?"

Barry was about to say that he was the best at running, and he hadn't tired himself out yet. Besides, if he could save Central City a few times, then surely this was a piece of cake comparatively. He braced himself for some of Leonard's snark, but then Cisco came back around the bend of the hallway, having gone on without knowing about what was happening at his back.

"Ah! Oh," Cisco squeaked, whipping around so he wouldn't have to look at them again. "Well, There's some questions answered and even more questions created. Hey, guys? Can we pause the snog fest for--like--however long it'll take us to put this bed together? Also, it was really weird for me to walk into the room with Mick just kind of half-naked and almost entirely asleep and not have you two behind me. There coulda been a death. Mine. It would have been my death."

Barry thunked his head against the wall, unable to help the giggles that spewed out from between his lips. "Sorry, Cisco." He looked at Leonard, who merely stepped back and fixed Barry's jacket before grabbing his dolly again.

Looking bleary-eyed and like he'd just woken up from a nap that lasted almost as long as a regular sleep cycle, Mick waved as they came in. He was sitting on one of the cots, legs folded and blanket bunched up around him. He looked soft, almost cuddly, like he might not even bite Barry if he went and wrapped his arms around him and squeezed. He ground the heel of his hand into his eye, growling out a few husky words, "What time izzit?"

"Just after three," Leonard replied, parking his dolly and going over to Mick to touch his face. Mick leaned into his hand like a sleepy puppy, eyes sliding shut again. "You need to eat."

Mick's response was mostly just a grunt.

"Uh, I'll go get some snack from the kitchen," Cisco offered, turning off the toting machine and setting the controls down.

"I can go," Barry tried to say, but Cisco shot him crazy eyes while shaking his head. 

"No, no, I will go and get so much food. And I will walk at a normal pace so that you guys can, y'know--" He made a motion that meant literally nothing but somehow had Barry's flushing up to the tips of his ears. Cisco hurried out of the room, muttering about how he was usually the third wheel, and he didn't want to be the fourth wheel because, despite "physics and shit" there was no balancing there.

Not sure what to think about that, Barry wheeled his dolly over to where Leonard's was, parked it and went over to stand awkwardly in their orbit but not touching. "I think we scarred Cisco," he told Leonard, dragging his nails lightly along Mick's scalp, and Mick looked like he was about to nod off again if he wasn't already.

"Mm, he'll get over it," Leonard said, looking down at Mick and reaching out with his other hand to tangle his fingers with Barry's.

It was weird. Warmth shouldn't have radiated up his wrist and made his heart bloom. This wasn't a romance novel. But there was something in Barry that felt good, and honestly just complete when they touched him. Caitlin would probably explain it as a chemical reaction that kept an alpha close and bonded to his mates when one was with child. He liked to think it was just that their need met his, and they were complete.

It was schmoopy nonsense, but he couldn't deny his feelings.

"What'd you guys do?" Mick mumbled, swaying a little as he chased Leonard's hand.

"Just kissed in the hallway," Leonard supplied, shifting his hand to drag his nails along the side of Mick's head behind his ear. 

Barry wondered if Mick would like it if he did that too.

"That's vanilla..." Mick slumped, side of his face hitting Leonard's hip, before he jerked back up with a snuffle. He squinted up at them, possibly daring them to laugh at him. "Shut up." He rubbed at his nose.

How this enormous, muscled man could be so much like every cute baby animal at once, Barry didn't know. He took some initiative and sat down on the cot next to him, nearly tipping backward when it didn't obey the laws of a flat surface. "Ah, oh, holy shit." He managed to get himself situated, likely because of Leonard holding his hand and Mick steadying him with a hand on the back. "These things are terrible," he muttered, wondering how the hell anyone managed to sleep on them.

"At least they don't creak," Leonard said, keeping a handle on his hand as he reached for the other cot and dragged it over to sit.

"Not that we give a shit," Mick said, before he just leaned against Barry and smushed his cheek into his shoulder, heaving a sigh. 

Oh, was time slowing down or was Barry's brain just overheating?

"Barry got us a bed," Leonard said, watching them was a languid smile pulling at his lips. He leaned back, squeezing Barry's hand, before letting him go and dropping back on his elbows. "I caught a peek at the headboard. It's nice. You'll like it." He spoke like his pose wasn't doing terrible things to Barry's brain. Was he doing that purposely? Most likely, because Leonard wasn't the type to do anything accidentally. But, oh, was it unfair.

Then Leonard's smile turned dirty, his legs falling so casually open. Barry was a gentleman, so his vision didn't narrow in on his crotch... for long. Barry stood no chance against these two, not with Mick shifting to loop a strong arm around his waist, and especially not with Leonard sitting there, practically inviting him to kneel between his legs. He swallowed a few times and looked at the ceiling, because that felt safe.

"Hey!" Cisco, his savior, called from out in the hallway, before waving a hand cautiously through the doorway. "You guys decent?"

"Yes," Barry replied, before looking down at Mick, who rolled his definitely hazel and completely beautiful eyes up. As he stared, Mick licked his lips and pushed his blanket down a bit, showing off a bit of pubes that meant he was certainly not decent. "Uh, mostly!" he amended to Cisco, reaching down and pulling the the blanket back up. "Stop it," he whispered, face and ears burning.

"Can't help it," Mick breathed out, showing his teeth. "Pregnancy makes me horny."

Leonard snorted out a laugh. "Everything makes you horny."

"Christ." Barry shuffled up, grabbing onto the cot and shuffling it over to the side of the room. "Here, you stay here while we put the bed together."

Mick humphed and plopped back down on the cot. "Any excuse to do not shit." He slipped the blanket up his legs, showing off his knees and then part of his meaty thighs before Barry intervened.

"No, no, none of that," Barry said, jerking the blanket into place over Mick's sexy, sexy legs before tucking them in.

But then Mick grabbed his arm and pulled him over. "After?" he asked, barely above a whisper.

"I--" Barry tried to say.

"You'll have to help us christen the new bed," Leonard muttered right in his ear.

Heat swooped down into Barry's belly. Oh, they wanted him to--oh. Oh dear. He licked his lips a few times, before he looked over at Cisco as he came in with a tray full of snacks. He zipped over to him, taking the food. "Thanks, for everything, but I'm gonna need you to leave now." He gave him significant, wide eyes, hoping he'd catch his meaning.

"I...?" Cisco looked between him and the others, before it must of dawned on him by the way his face changed. "For fuck's sake, Barry." He turned and left the room, walking down the hallway and holding out the word, "Groooooooss!" until he couldn't be heard anymore.

Barry had needs, okay?

When he turned, Mick and Leonard were looking very amused. He took them the food, muttered, "Gimme a minute," then got to work. 

The first hurdle was that he couldn't find any instructions for the bed frame that were in English, but he got the gist of it after staring at the diagrams. He had the bed frame constructed pretty quickly after he figured out what went up and what went down. He awkwardly shimmied the box spring and mattress onto the frame, before he went for the bedding. He tucked the corners of the flat sheet, punched the pillows to get them fluffy, then threw the blanket over the mattress. He finally slowed down as he smoothed the blanket over the top, looking over to Mick and Leonard.

They applauded him, but he was pretty sure it was completely sarcastic.

"How--How do you like it?" he asked, sweeping his arms out from were he balanced on his knees in the middle of the bed. "Big enough?"

"We'll test it and see," Leonard said, hand buried wrist deep in a share bag of peanut M&Ms. Where had he...? "But I like it." His eyes swept over the blanket. "It's my color."

"Looks soft," Mick added, upending a bag of chips and pouring the crumbs into his mouth. He wiped at his lips, set aside the tray and stood, the blanket that had been covering him falling away. "I like soft."

Dropping back on his heels, Barry watched Mick approach, eyes sliding over his body now that he could look without heat pheromones fogging up every part of his brain. If asked to define Mick by normal beauty standards, then no, Mick wasn't beautiful. He had taken that box of stereotypes and set it ablaze, and he walked through those ashes with an _I don't give a shit_ attitude and a body that made Barry want to weep. He was scarred, sure, and no, his belly wasn't perfectly trim. In fact, he had a bit of a gut. 

His thighs though. Those things didn't have a right to be what they were. Thick and meaty, which were two words that were never used to describe an omega. The way they moved as he climbed up onto the bed. The crease of his pelvis was tantalizing, and Barry wanted to trace it. When he reached out to do just that, Mick grabbed his arm and had him pinned to the mattress in a second, leaning over him. 

"Mm." Mick gave a predatory smile as he settled on Barry's thighs. "Yeah, this bed will do nicely." He took Barry's face in his hands and leaned down to kiss him, all heat, need and wet that had Barry arching up for more, moaning and grasping at Mick's arms and textured shoulders. He didn't go easy, knowing that Mick wouldn't like that, but Mick didn't tread lightly either. He was far more aggressive than last time, conquering Barry's mouth with his tongue and biting at his lips.

Barry tried to give back as good as he got, but he had never made out with someone so tenacious as Mick. He couldn't help his whimper as he more or less just held out for the ride. He tried to make up for what he couldn't manage with his mouth with his hands, searching and scratching along his skin until he found his chest. He rubbed and flicked his nails along Mick's nipples, finally getting a stilted moan against his mouth for his efforts. He decided that was enough to turn the tables.

Bracing his feet against the bed, he flipped them over, breaking the kiss in the process. He loomed over Mick, sitting back on his heels and pulling his jacket off. Before he could wax poetic in his head again about how gorgeous Mick was, all spread out and bare in front of him, he leaned down and dragged his teeth across his peck. Mick arched at the attention, hissing out Barry's name like a curse and a praise intertwined.

"I want to try something," Barry told him, lips dragging along Mick's skin as he moved down. 

"Yeah, what's that?" Mick asked, voice gone husky as he propped himself onto his elbow to peer down at him with hooded eyes. 

He didn't answer in words, just continued down, nipping at Mick's navel before coming face-to-face with his cock. It wasn't hard, not just yet, but it was on its way. Not that it didn't look fat and wonderful already with nested in the unruly black curls of his pubes. He licked his lips and flicked his eyes back up to Mick's face, hoping his intentions were clear. He could feel his face burning, but he was pretty sure his determination would win out against his embarrassment.

Mick had this shit-eating grin spread across his face. "You wanna suck me off, huh?" He reached down, carding his fingers through Barry's hair, and that was the most delicious feeling in the world. "You gonna choke on me again? 'Cause that's not fucking sexy, not when you don't do it on purpose." 

"I'll try not to," Barry said, turning his eyes down to Mick's cock again. He just needed to figure out that whole breathing thing, maybe rhythm too, and also where to put his hands--

"You need guidance," came Leonard's voice, and the bed dipped next to them as he slipped in next to them. "I can teach you."

"Yeah, he's an expert at sucking dick," Mick said, before he let out an _oof!_ as Leonard pushed him flat on his back. "Well, you are." He settled anyway, legs easing apart to make room for Barry to hunker down between them for his lesson.

"Don't go right for taking him into your throat. That was your mistake last time," Leonard informed him, taking hold of Mick's dick and starting to stroke him to full hardness. "You don't have to deep throat him if you learn what he likes." Once Mick was standing at attention, Leonard's grip changed, loosening to two fingers and his thumb.

Mick groaned something blasphemous to express his opinion on that.

"You can trace this vein." Leonard fingers glided along the thick, pulsing protrusion, drawing a gasp and a leg wiggle from Mick. "You can tease the slit." He rubbed his thumb against the opening at the tip of Mick's cock, pulling a sigh out of Mick as his thumb came back moist and sticky. "Or, just suck on the head and pay attention to this area." He slid his fingers around, just under the flare of the head, and Mick hummed. "You can use your hand for the rest until you get comfortable enough to take more." 

Leonard leaned down, making Barry turn his eyes up to see the mischief written across his features. "Or, if you really want to get him there fast, pay attention to this spot right here." He grinned and drew the tip of his finger hard against the line of scarred skin left by circumcision.

Mick nearly bucked off the bed. "F-fuck you," he hissed between bared teeth.

"Mm, some other time," Leonard promised him in a purr. "I'm in the middle of teaching."

The very idea of Mick fucking Leonard was a little too much for Barry's brain at the moment. He wanted to be there for whenever _some other time_ was though.

Leonard drew his hand away, licking his thumb and nodding pointedly at Mick's cock. "Go ahead. Give it a shot."

Barry swiveled his gaze between them, at Leonard's smug face then where Mick was gazing at him, having dragged a pillow down to prop up his head. He took in a deep breath, looking down again and curling his fingers around that dick. He ran his thumb along the vein, getting used to the feel of it so he could find it with his tongue. He pressed his lips against the crown of Mick's cock, lapping gently, experimentally at the slit. The taste of precome was a weird juxtaposition of salty and bitter that somehow didn't manage to be unpleasant. He took the head into his mouth, sucking as he got a bitter grip on the meat of him.

Mick's gasp brought Barry's eyes up to find him leaning his forehead against Leonard's arm, eyes still watching but a little hazy now. Leonard was ever calculating, assessing, but he couldn't and didn't seem to care to hide the tenting of his pants. "You're a quick study," Leonard murmured to him, reaching down and swiping Barry's bangs from his face. "When you listen anyway. I'll have to show you a few more things."

Narrowing his eyes, Barry found Mick's circumcision scar and vibrated his tongue lightly against. Mick's reaction was instantaneous, arching and kicking his leg with a high whine. He didn't come, but it looked like a near thing.

"Ah ah, no cheating." Leonard got a grasp on Barry's hair and tugged lightly to get him to stop. "Learn the basics first, then you can fuck around all you like." Barry tipped his head back, opening his mouth and letting Mick's cock rest on his tongue, just undulating lightly against that scar. It made Leonard suck in a breath of surprise before he hastily licked his lips. "Isn't that a pretty sight?" he whispered.

"Wish you guys would stop flirting and just get me off already," Mick bit out, one hand over his eyes and the other fisted in the blanket like he was barely holding onto his control.

Barry would have felt bad, probably should have felt bad, but then the idea of sucking Mick slowly enough to get him to beg was too tempting of a concept. He took more of Mick into his mouth, shooting a glanced at Leonard, who gave him an encouraging jerk of his chin. He bobbed his head languidly, holding what he didn't have in his mouth with his hand. He did want to get good at this, if only to use his skills for evil later.

Had he taken into account that Mick was, well, _Mick_ , he wouldn't have expected him to beg. No, he would have expected him to lose all sense of patience, because that's exactly what he did. He grabbed onto Barry's hair, yanking the strands none-too-gently, and wrapped one thick, strong leg around him to drag him an inch or so closer. "I swear to fuckin' God, Barry," he grounded out as Leonard grinned like the Cheshire cat next to him. "You tryin' to make me fuck your mouth?"

 _No_ , Barry's brain supplied immediately, because that was scary. But part of him screamed _Yes!_ because it would be thrilling and new, and he wanted Mick to just take his pleasure. But he had no idea if he had it in him to let him take it. It could be too much. But, it could also be just right. So, ultimately he filed the answer away in the _Maybe._ folder.

He moved his head faster, working his tongue against the scar. He felt it get messy, drool and precome slipping out of the corners of his mouth and slicking the way for his hand. It was easier like this, timing his breaths with the upstroke of his hand and focusing on the sharp intakes Mick was taking through his teeth and the sounds of his moans. He wasn't quiet, and Barry liked it. He wanted him louder. Shifting his position, he got his free hand under the both of them, tips of his fingers slipping through Mick's wet folds before pressing inside him and nailing the spot that had made him lose it last time. If there was anything that his good memory was made for, it was this. 

Mick nearly unseated him, hips snapping up with a loud cry. Barry hazarded a look up and found Mick clinging to Leonard, fingers clenched in his sweater as he watched Barry with nearly closed, glassy eyes. Leonard was watching him too, holding Mick against his front as he free hand stroked his own cock as it jutted out from the V of Leonard's open pants.

 _Nope._ Barry decided right then that wouldn't do at all. He doubled his efforts on Mick, wanting to give him what he needed and hear him scream. He leaned in harder, taking as much of Mick into his mouth as he could stand while working him with his hands. When Mick came, it wasn't with a scream though, it was with an impossible bow of his spine and a low moan of Barry's name. That was infinitely better.

He was so distracted that he almost forgot to swallow, but he managed, only coughing a little as he sat up and wiped the bit of come that had escaped down his chin. He took stock of his work in the stretched out, fucked out form of Mick, almost unconscious as he dragged in ragged breaths and slumped against Leonard. 

And Leonard, well, he had this painfully smug look on his face as he stroked himself. He flashed a toothy grin. "Good show, Barry. You learn fast."

Barry was on him in a fraction of a second, perching between his legs and grabbing his wrist to pull his hand away from his dick and up to his own face. "Let me show you what I've learned," he said, trying not to grin at that stunned expression as he dragged his tongue along Leonard's palm.

Mick took that chance to shift back against the pillows, folding his arms under his head. "Brought this on yourself, boss."

"What--?" Whatever Leonard was going to say ended in an amazing squeaky noise as Barry grabbed onto the hems of his pants and underwear and hoisted his back end off the bed entirely as he pulled them off. "Gah, you shit." He was laughing anyway as he tugged off his sweater too, tossing it in the general direction the rest of his clothes had gone.

Barry lifted Leonard's leg, kissed the side of his knee, then grabbed his dick and swallowed as much as he could straight away. Vindictive? Him? Maybe. So what if he wanted to hear Leonard gasp, to see him twist at the sudden heat and wet of Barry's mouth. He wasn't expecting to deal with foreskin, but he adapted. He pushed at it with his tongue, swirling around the exposed skin. He pumped with his hand, using all he'd just learned with Mick's dick to get him off. His determination and some vibration of his tongue helped too.

Barry didn't feel smug often, but sitting up after Leonard came with a cry and observing his panting, slightly slick with sweat body was something to be proud of. He grinned when Leonard narrowed his eyes at him, still panting just a little. But then Leonard and Mick looked at each other, and Barry's smile fell. Uh oh.

They grabbed him, divesting him quickly of his clothes and pulling him down between them on his back. They kissed him: his mouth, his face, his neck, his hair. Their hands moved over him, touching him so completely. They stroked his cock as he tried to breathe, feeling completely closed in by their bodies but somehow not claustrophobic. They had him. He was safe.

He came with a whimper into Mick's mouth as Leonard whispered encouraging into the place behind his ear. They held him as his shivered softly through the aftermath, before he settled with a soft groan.

"Man," he sighed out, stretching his ankles. "This _is_ a good bed."

Mick chuckled into his shoulder.

Leonard lifted his head, bracing his chin with his hand. "It'll do," he said, smiling when Barry rolled his eyes. "Gotta say I've never gotten a whole living space as a Christmas gift before though. I could get used to it."

Barry opened his mouth to say something sassy, before he stopped and sat up quickly. "Wait! I actually get you guys something else."

"Barry," Leonard chided softly.

He just slid off the bed and looked down at himself. He had a pool of come making a slow trek down his happy trail. "Ew."

"Napkins," Mick supplies, pointing in the general direction of the food tray.

Barry zipped over there and wiped himself clean. He quickly found the bag with the little gifts he'd gotten and zipped back to the bed. He wiggled his way back between them and dug into the bag. "Okay, so these aren't super exciting gifts--"

"So not the Kahndaq Dynasty Diamond?" Leonard tsked, looking disappointed, and Barry gave him a flat look.

"No," Barry told him, pulling out the mug and pushing it against his chest. "I just saw them and thought of you two."

Huffing, Leonard took the mug and looked it over. He appeared like he might go for some more snark, but then he just stayed quiet, thumb rubbing over the engraved snowflake on the white mug. He pressed his lips together. 

"Do you like it?" Barry asked, uncertain somehow.

Leonard cleared his throat. "I'm... trying to figure out how to word just how much I love it in a way that won't inflate your ego to bursting." He very pointedly did not look at Barry.

A grin bloomed across Barry's face. Too late.

Mick none-too-subtly cleared his throat.

With a snort, Barry dug into the bag again for Mick's gift. He handed it over and watched as Mick righted it in his hands, before absolute manic glee spread over his face. It was a lighter, and it was Christmas themed. The graphic was a pixelated shark rising out of the water like Jaws with a sprig of mistletoe over its maw. It said, _Kiss Me._

"This is my new favorite thing," Mick said, before he turned and laid a big, solid kiss right on Barry's mouth. "Thanks, babe."

Babe. Barry could get used to that.

"I almost feel bad about not getting you anything," Leonard said, still appraising his mug.

"If I said that you guys just being here is the best gift I could ever--?" Two hands landed over his mouth at the same time. His chuckles were muffled as he took in their fondly exasperated expressions. Yeah, okay, he wouldn't say it.

He'd just think it really hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Leonard's Mug](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49376862898_713a912cbc.jpg)   
>  [Mick's Lighter](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49377539472_722b37cbe7.jpg)
> 
> Next up - Christmas! When will the chapter be up? Your guess is as good as mine.


End file.
